New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for City Gas Distribution (CGD) projects in as many as 129 districts in order to boost the availability of gas supply for half of country’s population in 26 states and Union Territory. The project comes under the 9th CGD Building round and PM will initiate the same in an event scheduled to happen in the national capital on Thursday. The project will further ease the availability of PNG gas in several households and citizens will get relief from booking cylinder gas. The projects, recently awarded by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) would cover 65 Geographical Areas (GAs).

Speaking about the same during a press conference held earlier this week, Bharat Petroleum’s Executive Director Rajendra Natekar said that these CGDs will be piped gas. Natekar further added that as of September 2018, 46 lakh customers were covered and there are roughly 1,500 CNG stations. The BP chief also mentioned that the government and fuel firm are looking forward to the 10th round in which the government will introduced 50 more Gas.

Here is a district-wise list of GAs that would be benefitted under the 9th round of Gas Distribution Project:

Haryana: Panchkula, Hisar, Bhiwani, Charkhi, Dadri, Mahendragarh, Sonipat, Jind, Nuh and Palwal

Punjab: Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, Patiala, Sangrur

Himachal Pradesh: Sirmaur, Shimla, Sohna

Rajasthan: Barmer, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Alwar, Jaipur, Kota, Baran, Chittorgarh, Bhilwada, Bundi, Udaipur and Dholpur

Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal, Rajgarh, Guna, Rewa, Satna, Dhahdol

Bihar: Aurangabad, Kaimur, Rohtas, Begusarai, Gaya, Nalanda

Gujarat: Surendranagar, Ranpur, Navsari, Surat, Tapi, Dang, Junagarh, Kheda, Morbi, Mahisagar, Narmada, Porbander

Maharashtra: Ahmednagar, Auranagabad, Valsad, Dhule, Nasik, Latur, Osmanabad, Sangli, Satara, Sindhudurg

The ninth CGD bidding round was launched in April for 86 Gas, said a statement issued by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. “After the evaluation, a letter of authorisation for development of CGD projects in these GAs have been issued to 23 entities,” the statement added.

Once the ninth round of CGD connection gets activated, natural gas will be available in 178 GAs comprising 290 districts covering more than 46 per cent of the country’s overall population and around 35 per cent of the geographical area.