Trial has begun at 55 houses at an apartment in Anna Nagar in Chennai for the supply of piped natural gas (PNG). These are the first batch of domestic natural gas connections provided in the city. It has been over a month now since the trial run began with the company laying the pipelines at the 16-floor apartment.
Pradeep Sampath, a resident on the ninth floor of the complex, said that they were comfortable with the connection. “They refused to conceal the pipelines saying that it is a Government of India norm. With natural gas, we don’t have the issue of soot formation on the utensils,” he said.
R. Sitharthan, vice-president (Operations), Torrent Gas Chennai Pvt. Ltd., said that pipelines were laid wherever required. So far, over 3,000 registrations had been made in Chennai and those living in individual houses and apartments had evinced interest. “Since the price of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) supplied via pipelines is lower than that of the LPG, more consumers are coming forward to sign up,” he said. Torrent is working on laying pipelines in Chennai, Tiruvallur, and Nagapattinam, where around 250 houses are using PNG as cooking fuel, and in Karaikal. The company supplies CNG to 65 fuel outlets.
Prakasam Jagan, chief executive officer, of the Chennai region, Ozone group, said the advantage of PNG was that the consumers received meter reading on WhatsApp. It is a safe fuel. Several apartment owners in the city had signed up for the connections, he added.
Indian Oil Corporation, which is laying pipelines in Coimbatore, Salem, Madurai, Thoothukudi and Krishnagiri, supplies CNG to 45 fuel outlets. It is laying pipelines for providing domestic connections.
AG&P Pratham, which is working in Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Vellore, Ranipet, Ramanthapuram and Tirupattur, has so far provided 361 active domestic connections and provided PNG connections to nine industries.
Vinukumar Balakrishnan, Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer, said that the company started its activation of domestic PNG connections from May after notification of the State’s City Gas Distribution Policy. The number of active customers is likely to increase rapidly in the next few months, he added.
