India Pushes States to Speed Up Household Shift from LPG to Piped Gas

The Indian government has urged states and Union Territories to provide district-level administrative support for households to switch from LPG to piped natural gas (PNG) as a safer cooking fuel. According to Petroleum Secretary Neeraj Mittal, PNG adoption contributes to reducing the logistics burden associated with LPG distribution, enhancing consumer convenience, and improving utilisation of CGD infrastructure created through substantial public and private investment.

The government has been encouraging consumers to shift to PNG since the Strait of Hormuz was choked due to the Middle East crisis, disrupting the supply chain for LPG. About 7.99 lakh PNG connections were gasified and infrastructure created for an additional 2.87 lakh connections during this period, taking the total to 10.86 lakh connections.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has directed authorised city gas distribution (CGD) entities and public-sector oil marketing companies to establish a PNG Coordination Committee (PCC) in every geographical area to identify eligible housing societies and households, issue statutory notices, and conduct outreach camps to accelerate PNG connections.