Adani Total Gas Ltd (ATGL) will invest Rs 18,000-20,000 crore to build additional infrastructure in the city gas distribution (CGD) business over the next 8-10 years, the company's chief financial officer Parag Parikh said in the company's annual report for 2022-23.

The joint venture between the Gautam Adani group and French energy giant Total Energies invested over Rs 1,150 crore in the last fiscal in infrastructure that catered to the retailing of CNG (compressed natural gas) for automobiles apart from the supply of piped gas to households and industry.

The company holds 52 gas licences that cover 124 districts of the country. It has 460 CNG stations and about 7 lakh consumers of piped cooking gas.

``From a long-term perspective, we continue to be optimistic of gas prospects. There is a larger priority to moderate pollution as gas remains a preferred clean energy source with high user safety, customer trust and delivery convenience," Parikh said.

He added that India’s CGD network is moving to a point when it evolves into an ecosystem, graduating gas from a localised fuel into a national energy source.

This coupled to new initiatives related to electric vehicle charging and biogas would augur well for ATGL and will empower it to provide a choice of alternative green fuels.

On its debt position, he said the company ended the year with a debt-equity ratio of 0.47 times and a net debt to EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortisation) of 1.1 times.

According to Parikh, for infrastructure firms with stable and larger consumers and near-annuity incomes, the extent of indebtedness is low, indicating sound capital management and healthy financial ratios.

ATGL CEO Suresh P. Manglani said the firm's strategy is to fast-track steel pipeline laying and build CNG stations faster across the licenses where it operates for early monetisation.

He disclosed that the company will build over 1,800 CNG stations in the next 7-10 years and it is committed to connect every home across all its geographical areas (GAs) desiring to have cleaner and greener piped natural gas in their kitchen.

Besides scaling the core business of gas distribution, the company has embarked on diversifying its bouquet of choice — CNG, compressed biogas (CBG) and EV charging.