Following the success of piped gas in Mumbai and Delhi, the Centre has decided to spend Rs 12,000 crore in the next two years to extend this facility to 28 more cities, including Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. This was disclosed by Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora while talking to the media persons in Mumbai.
Most of these cities will be covered by 2009.
The other prominent cities which would receive piped gas include: Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Pune, Ahmedabad, Vijaywada, Navi Mumbai, National Capital Region, Allahabad, Indore and Vadodara. Once completed, two crore households would be supplied piped gas in kitchens, releasing 16 crore LPG cylinders for supply of gas to two crore additional rural households.
At present five lakh households in Mumbai and Delhi are provided piped gas. The distribution network is to be extended to 200 more cities subsequently.