New Delhi: The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has invited bids under "11A CGD Bidding Round" for licences to supply natural gas to households, automobiles and small industries in geographical areas (GAs) spread across five states. In a notification issued on Friday, the PNGRB said that bids for the GAs on offer open on January 7 and close on April 6. "Bids for these GAs have been invited by PNGRB on 07.01.2022 and the last date of bid submission is 06.04.2022," said PNGRB.
The latest bidding round announced by the PNGRB offers GAs spread across Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh. "The above mentioned five GAs bid-out under 11A CGD Bidding Round along with the previously bid out 61 GAs under 11th CGD Bidding Round would cover 28.47 percent of the country's population and 34.66 percent of its area," said PNGRB.
"Upon finalisation of bids under these rounds, approximately 88 percent of the country's area would be authorised for the development of CGD Network to provide access of natural gas to approximately 98 percent of the country's population," it added.
In order to further expand the reach of natural gas in the country and push its share in India's energy mix to 15 percent by 2030, PNGRB had launched the 11th CGD Bidding Round on September 17, 2021 for the development of CGD Network in 65 Geographical Areas (GAs) spread over 215 districts (212 complete and three part) in 19 states and one Union Territory covering 26 percent of India's population and 33 percent of its area. The technical bids were opened between December 17, 2021 and December 22, 2021, wherein 439 bids were received from 26 entities against 61 GAs.
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