PM Modi lays foundation stone for city gas work in 122 districts
New Delhi, Nov 22: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday laid foundation stones to mark the beginning of work for CNG supply to automobiles and piped cooking gas to kitchens in 129 districts of 18 states, covering over a quarter of India's population.
Keen to cut emissions through a greater share of environment friendly natural gas as auto and cooking fuel, Modi also launched the 10th round of bidding for award of city gas licenses in 124 new districts, which have been clubbed into 50 Geographical Areas (GAs).
"This is an important step in developing infrastructure," he said, adding once 10th round is completed, natural gas as fuel will cover 400 districts and 70 per cent population.
Modi said households with piped cooking gas connections would reach 2 crore after network in cities awarded up to 10th round is completed. Currently there are over 32 lakh piped consumers.
He said CNG stations too would more than double to 10,000.
Downstream regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) had just a few weeks back awarded licenses for 78 out of the 86 GAs put on offer in the 9th round of bidding.
Of the GAs awarded in the 9th round, Modi laid foundation stones for work in 65 GAs, made up of 129 districts, while leaving out the ones in election-bound states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana due to the model code of conduct.
The license winners of 61 GAS out of these 65 GAs organised functions in their respective areas, which were connected to Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital through video conferencing, where the prime minister formally launched the city gas works.
With an annual consumption of 142 million standard cubic meters per day, the share of natural gas in India's energy mix is just 6.2 per cent. This compares to a world average of 24 per cent. Gas accounts for 25 per cent share in Gujarat's energy mix.
Speaking on the occasion, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the city gas licensing rounds are a step towards making India a gas-based economy.
Gas is an environment-friendly fuel which is cheaper than not just liquid fuels such as petrol and diesel but is also cheaper than subsidised LPG.
City gas distribution (CGD) networks entail building pipelines from the gas supply source to the doorstep of consumers as well as setting up CNG dispensing stations to supply the fuel to automobiles.
PNGRB had offered 106 GAs in the previous eight bid rounds, of which 56 were awarded. 35 GAs were authorised by the government prior to incorporation of PNGRB.
The 91 GAs existing prior to the 9th round covered 11 per cent of the country's area and about 19 per cent of the population. Over 3.2 million vehicles are served in these GAs by 1,349 CNG stations as compared to over 63,000 petrol pumps. ?As many as 4.6 million households are connected with piped cooking gas.
In the 10th bid round for giving licences to retail CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to household kitchens, 50 geographical areas or GAs spread over 124 districts in 14 states, covering 24 per cent of India's population and 18 per cent of its area, are being offered, PNGRB Chairman Dinesh K Sarraf said.
In the ninth bid round, 86 GAs spread over 174 districts in 22 states and union territories and covering 26 per cent of India's population and 24 per cent of its area was offered. Of these, 78 GAs have been awarded to companies like Adani Gas, Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Torrent Gas.
"Of the 86 GAs of 9th bid round, five GAs have been excluded as they are under litigation. Another 16 GAs fall in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana where assembly elections are on and so have been excluded because of model code of conduct," he said.
First CNG station or a piped natural gas connection in the GAs awarded in the previous round will take at least 1-2 years to become operational.
"In the two rounds (9th and 10th), we have covered 50 per cent of India's population and 42 per cent of the area," he said.
Bids for the 10th round will close on February 5 and areas will be awarded by the end of February, he said.
Cities on offer in the 10th round include Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, Muzaffarpur in Bihar, Kaithal in Haryana, Mysore and Gulbarga in Karnataka, Alappuzha and Kollam in Kerala, Ujjain, Gwalior and Morena in Madhya Pradesh, Jhansi and Basti in Uttar Pradesh, Firozpur and Hoshiarpur in Punjab, Ajmer and Jalore in Rajasthan, Nainital in Uttarakhand and Darjeeling and Howrah in West Bengal.
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A 99-run loss is unacceptable: Hayden blames batting horror
Ahmedabad (PTI): Gujarat Titans' batting coach Matthew Hayden was scathing about their 99-run defeat to Mumbai Indians, blaming a "horror" batting display and poor death bowling for the heavy loss in the IPL.
From being 44/3 in 5.5 overs, MI hammered 73 runs in the last four overs to post a challenging 199/5 here on Monday. In reply, GT were bundled out for 100.
"I expect our margins to be a lot smaller than 100 (99). That is an unacceptable scorecard for our batting unit," the legendary Australian opener told media in the post-match interaction.
"It was just a horrible day for us today. Truth be told, there was nothing good about this day, really, apart from Rabada's performance with the ball. so we've got some work to do, definitely."
GT boast a strong batting line-up in Sai Sudharsan (759 runs), Shubman Gill (717), and Jos Buttler (538). They have also added New Zealand’s explosive Glenn Phillips in the middle order alongside Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Tewatia.
"When you look down at our batting line-up, we've got wonderful players that have to be in a better mindset and better position to take their opportunities. That is our expectations and has been since the conception of this Gujarat Titans franchise...
"So you can't be sitting here and being happy about, a 100-run (99) margin game in a 20-over game. I mean, back in my day, 100 runs was almost a winning total in 50-over cricket!"
The 54-year-old said GT lost the game in the powerplay.
"Well, middle order was undoubtedly exposed today. When they're coming in with six overs, you know that you're in deep trouble. The thing about the power plays is that you can't win it from there, especially in a run chase, but you can definitely lose it, and we lost it in the power play," he said.
Shahrukh (35 off 25 balls) and Tewatia (49 off 42) have not fared well this season and Hayden feels the duo along with Phillips (67 off 54 balls) have been struggling because the top order has been below its best.
"The relevance behind balls faced when you look at, for example, someone like Glenn Phillips -- his record in T20 cricket is an impressive strike rate and you'll take that all day long in the majority of games," Hayden said.
"However, you need an upfront batting effort where you consistently taking the lion's share of the batting. We shouldn't be allowing, Tiwu (Tewatia) or Shahrukh or these guys lots of balls. That's not their role. That's not what they train for."
Hayden said GT has an aggressive and adaptable unit but their execution fell apart on the day.
"We are a very good thinking batting unit. We're not a conservative batting unit. You don't go out and get 200s as often as we do being conservative. But they're an adaptive batting unit. ...they've got their roles and they play them and today they simply didn't.
"So the worry isn't just today about the middle order. It'd be unfair to say that, they were going to go on and score 13 runs an over because by that stage, I felt like as a batting coach, I was on the mast and the boat was sinking."
It was poorly executed bowling effort
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Hayden also pointed to poor execution in the death overs.
"I feel like one-dimensional is very unfair on a world-class bowling attack, but I will take on board it was a poorly executed bowling effort this evening.
"When you look back at those last four overs, that was just a 'horror story' -- 73 off the last four is unacceptable as world-class players. That bowling line-up has to reflect on that performance... It was purely an executional thing."
He added that GT were below par with the ball on a surface that didn’t fully justify the high total.
"We're very average with the ball, firstly, on a wicket that I really felt was probably a 175-type wicket.
"When you look historically at this black soil pitch on No. 5, it's a 200-wicket for the loss of five batters. That's been its winning first-inning score, and today it wasn't that wicket (199/5)... It was visible that it had cracks in it. It was visible that it was up and down.
"So credit also has to go to Tilak Varma, who put in a wonderful performance. It wasn't a cookie-cutter type performance. It was a dominant performance down the ground. He read the play nicely. He was able to pick up and play with power and precision."
Hayden said the chase was still within reach but poor shot selection proved costly.
"And when you reflect on our own batting, we had one side of the ground that was a little more inaccessible than the other, and we lost, what, three wickets into the bigger side of that boundary.
"And it wasn't an impossible total. 200 still is a total that I would back our three world-class players at the top of the order to etch into that a bit more and then allow our more sort of game players. An opportunity to set out their stalls and bat deep into the innings."
