CNG for vehicles a priority, industry comes next: Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabh Patel

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat minister of state for energy Saurabh Patel said the state government will provide only surplus natural gas (as fuel) to big industries after allocating it for vehicles and small industries. "We will first give natural gas for vehicular use.

We want to give it to smaller industries as well. Big industries will get only surplus gas," Patel said on the sidelines of a conference 'Financing SMEs - Towards Global Competitiveness - 2012' organised jointly by Gujarat government, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry ( FICCI) and Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI).

The government got a boost from a recent judgement of Gujarat High Court directing the Centre to provide Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as a vehicular fuel as per the Administered Price Mechanism (APM) in Ahmedabad as is the case in New Delhi and Mumbai. Till now consumers in Gujarat had to buy CNG at market rate. "The judgement will result in considerable savings to the consumers of the state. We have been representing the case to the centre since long," he added.