Centre eyes to set up green energy corridors

Chandigarh: The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas is mulling to develop green energy corridors across the country. The ministry is planning to have corridors in Northern region namely Delhi-Jaipur, Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Haridwar and Delhi-Agra. Similar type of green corridor is proposed for Allahabad-Kanpur-Varansi,  Banglore-Mumbai-Pune and Andhra Pradesh. The union ministry is planning to extend the network of green fuels like Compressed natural gas (CNG) and  Piped Natural Gas (PNG) to these cities.  

“We are planning to promote green energy in an aggressive manner and planning to make green energy corridors across the country. We are planning to have one in Northern region spanning across Delhi, Chandigarh, Agra and Haridwar. Also, we have plans to extent green energy network to Allahabad-Kanpur-Varanasi in Eastern region besides Banglore- Mumbai- Pune. Similar kind of corridor proposed in Andhra Pradesh, as the state government has shown keen interest in setting up,” said ’ Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of state(I/C), Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas on the sidelines of a seminar ‘Bio-Fuel Programme in India-The Way Forward.

He further added that the Union government is planning to extend CNG and PNG network across these corridors in near future with Bio-Fuel as also one of the composition of the corridor.

Earlier addressing the conference, he said, “ We have not achieved the desired result as far bio-fuel blending is concerned. As far blending of bio-diesel with diesel is concerned, it has not started. In case of blending of petrol with bio-ethanol it is only 3 per cent because of several reasons. We need to increase their consumption and production to reduce the import bill.  Our government is focused towards promoting bio-fuel blending and will do every possible steps so that their consumption of  Bio-Fuel is increased and to reduce dependence on import of crude oil.”

On being asked the other measures, he added that the centre is also planning to equip the smart cities with green energy. “I personally think that the smart city should have smart energy and the gas based energy like CNG and PNG is preferred choice. So, we are planning to extend green fuel to upcoming green cities proposed by the centre government, “he added. He also informed that his ministry is planning to introduce policy for Green Cooking Energy.

In addition to this for boosting the use of clean fuel, he informed that the ministry is planning to triple the number of CNG station in Delhi in next two-three years for boosting the use of clean fuel and petroleum.

 At present around 300 CNG stations have been commissioned in Delhi.  During the peak hours, vehicle owners have to wait in queues at the CNG stations, as the time taken to fill CNG into vehicles is comparatively more than that in case of Liquid fuels.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.