CNG supply: Petroleum Ministry secretary appears before Gujarat HC

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat High Court today disposed of a petition on CNG supply, after a joint secretary in Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) today appeared before it and informed that all technical problems in supplying natural gas to the state have been resolved.

The secretary in MoPNG was last week asked to appear before the High Court today in case of failure to work out a supply arrangement of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to Gujarat at the same price as Delhi and Mumbai under the Administered Price Mechanism (APM).

The High Court gave the order as consumers were not supplied cheaper CNG by the Centre even after an undertaking given to the court by the central government that it would do so by November 30.

Joint Secretary P K Singh today informed a division bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala that all technical difficulties in supplying CNG to Gujarat have been solved.

"The learned Assistant Solicitor General of India, appearing on behalf of the respondent (Centre) submits that the technical problem that had accrued earlier regarding supply of the natural gas to the state of Gujarat has been resolved and GAIL has agreed to supply the gas at the GSPL ( Gujarat State Petronet Limited) and PLL ( Petronet LNG Ltd) direct connectivity at Dahej, subject to the statutory tariffs decided by the regulatory authority, namely, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board," the court said.

Disposing of the petition, the court observed that since the Centre and state government had arrived at an agreement, no further order was necessary.

"In view of the above agreement arrived at amongst the parties, no further order is necessary. It is needless to mention that the respondent-authority will comply with the averments made in the earlier affidavit filed before this court, including compliance of the guidelines stated in the said affidavit," the bench said.

"The application is, thus, disposed of," the court said.