More than 400 districts covering 70 per cent of the population will have access to piped gas over the next few years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Thursday.

He was laying the foundation stone for city gas distribution (CGD) projects across 129 districts awarded in the recently concluded ninth round of bidding. The projects awarded under the bidding rounds are spread over 96 cities and districts, covering 46.5 lakh households and 32 lakh CNG vehicles.

Modi said 25 lakh households in the country had access to PNG (piped natural gas) in 2014 and because of the government’s efforts that figure has more than doubled by 2018.

He added more than 2 crore households will have access to PNG in the next 3-4 years because of infrastructure created in the ninth and tenth rounds.

“The country had 947 CNG stations in 2014, we have increased that number to more than 1,470 stations in 2018 and intend to scale it up to 10,000 CNG stations in the coming years,” Modi said.

Natural gas in the form of CNG (compressed natural gas) is 60 per cent cheaper compared with petrol and 45 per cent cheaper compared with diesel. PNG (piped gas) is 40 per cent cheaper compared with LPG at market prices, and the price of PNG almost matches that of subsidised LPG based on prices in Delhi.

Modi said the government is paying attention to all aspects of natural gas ecosystem and has been simultaneously working on increasing the present capacity of LNG terminals across the country.