RIL, GAIL, IOC in race to supply piped natural gas to 6 towns

NEW DELHI: Eight companies including Reliance Industries, GAIL, Cairn and Indian Oil Corp have bid for six towns put on offer for supply of CNG and piped natural gas.

Reliance Gas Company Ltd, a subsidiary of RIL, put in just one bid for the city gas project in Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh while GAIL Gas Ltd, a unit of GAIL, applied for all the other five cities of Kota, Dewas, Meerut, Sonepat and Mathura, industry sources said.

Sector regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) had called bids for setting up city gas projects for retailing CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to households in six cities.

The joint venture of the Indian Oil Corp and the Adani Energy bid for Kota, Dewas, Meerut and Sonepat, while Cairn in joint venture with Bharat Petroleum put in bids for Kota and Sonepat. GAIL Gas was the sole bidder for Mathura.

Bhagyanagar Gas Ltd was the only other bidder for Kakinada while in Dewas Gujarat State Petroleum Corp was in contention with IOC-Adani and GAIL.

Kota had IOC-Adani, GAIL Gas and Cairn-BPCL in direct competition. In Meerut, IOC-Adani and GAIL Gas faced competition from Indraprastha Gas Ltd, the sole supplier of CNG in national capital. IGL was also a bidder for Sonepat where IOC-Adani, GAIL Gas, Cairn-BPCL and DCM Infrastructure were the other bidders.