GAIL India Ltd, the country’s largest gas utility, plans to invest over Rs 45,000 crore over the next five years to expand the National Gas Pipeline Grid and city gas distribution network to help push for greater use of environment-friendly fuel, its chairman Ashutosh Karnatak said.
The gas pipelines are planned to take the fuel to the east and northeast regions as well as to consumers in the south as part of the government push to raise the share of natural gas in India’s energy basket to 15 per cent by 2030 from the current 6.2 per cent, he said.
GAIL’s push for the creation of infrastructure is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of creating a gas-based economy that is less reliant on polluting fuels for meeting its energy needs.