GAIL India will supply piped natural gas (PNG) in around 23,000 apartments belonging to various Tata group and other companies in the steel city.
Disclosing this to The Telegraph Online, S K Pal, a senior official of GAIL India, said, 'We have a big job to execute. We have entered into an agreement with Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Timken for supplying piped natural gas in around 23,000 flats located in different areas of steel city where work is expected to resume in another two months.'
According to Pal, who looks after Jamshedpur operations, PNG provides fool proof safety and is cost effective because of which companies had opted for it.
'Due to the lockdown the pipeline laying work was affected in various housing societies in Sonari and Mango. We are now focussing on those housing societies where flat owners have already deposited Rs 6,000 as security money for availing the facility of piped natural gas ' he said.
GAIL India, a government enterprise and the country's largest natural gas processing and distribution company, had in October last year rolled out PNG and CNG (compressed natural gas) supply projects in the steel city.
The supply was first made to domestic consumers at Ashiana Gardens, a housing complex comprising flats and apartments in Sonari. A CNG supply station for CNG-run vehicles was also inaugurated at Mango. The PNG is supplied from a de-compression unit set up near the Tribal Culture Society in Sonari.
The supply was under the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga scheme. In Ranchi, the PNG supply was launched in August last year.
Currently, PNG reached Jamshedpur in special containers called cascades, which are transported by road from Patna. GAIL India has plans to supply natural gas through pipes from Purulia. But as of now pipeline laying work was getting delayed due to the lockdown, revealed sources.
GAIL's PNG distribution project will cover 3,562 sq km. Under the project. to be carried out in phases, around one lakh households are supposed to be benefitted. At Ashiana Gardens and other apartments in Sonari 4,000 households are now using PNG.
