Pradhan launches city gas distribution in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack

Ushering in a new era of economic development and convenience, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday launched the implementation of City Gas Distribution (CGD) project in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack in the presence of Member of Parliament (Bhubaneswar) Dr Prasanna Kumar Patasani, Member of Parliament (Cuttack) Bhartruhari Mahtab and other digniaties.

The event marked an important step towards the fulfilment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream of developing a gas-based economy and linking Eastern India to the country's Natural Gas Grid through the Jagdishpur – Haldia & Bokaro – Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL). The pipeline, popularly known as 'Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga', will pass through five states Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal and the longest stretch of 762 km will be built in Odisha.

Dharmendra Pradhan also inaugurated the Odisha office of GAIL (India) Limited which is implementing the pipeline as well as the CGD project.

The Bhubaneshwar CGD project will be built with a capital expenditure of around Rs 1,000 crore. It will benefit around 25 lakh people in Khordha district and around 2.5 lakh households will be supplied with environment friendly, safe and economic piped natural gas (PNG). Moreover, 24 CNG stations will be commissioned in the first three to five years to supply CNG fuel to around one lakh vehicles.

Similarly, in Cuttack CGD project, the capital expenditure will be around Rs 750 crore. Around 26 lakh people will benefit from this project while 2.5 lakh households will get PNG connections. In addition, CNG will be available to 50,000 vehicles through 20 CNG stations which will be set up in next three to five years. Almost 2,000 km of steel and MDPE pipelines will be laid for these two CGD networks.