Mumbai (The Hindu): City gas distribution firm Mahanagar Gas is planning to expand its reach to the whole of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The company, which is promoted by GAIL (India) Limited and BG Asia Pacific Holdings, wants to more than triple its piped gas connections, from 8.5 lakh to 30 lakh households, and quadruple its compressed natural gas (CNG) reach from 4.5 lakh vehicles to 18 lakh in the next eight years.

Aside from homes, MGL supplies piped gas to over 2,600 small commercial and 55 industrial establishments. And it fuels two lakh autorickshaws, two lakh cars, and about 50,000 taxis in the MMR, as well as about 3,400 public transport busses and over 5,000 commercial vehicles through its 188 CNG stations. It plans to add another 70 in the coming years.

Mahanagar Gas managing director Rajeev Mathur told The Hindu , “We now have 4,700 kilometres of pipeline, and are planning to add another 700 kilometres to connect the whole of Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Raigad to our network. We now cater to 30 per cent of the Mumbai population and plan to cover the whole of Mumbai in 7 to 8 years by adding 1.5 lakh new connections per year. We plan to leverage of the strength of retail network of oil marketing companies (OMCs) and in future you will see a combination of our own retail network and selling through network of OMCs.”

MGL’s authorised areas of operation include the adjacent municipalities Kalyan, Dombivali, Ambernath, Badlapur, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi Panvel, Taloja and Kharghar, which between them are home to almost two crore people, a market potential of about 5 MMSCMD (million standard cubic feet per day) of natural gas. MGL also has plans to develop its networks in a few more cities through the bidding route.