New Delhi, Jan 11 (PTI) Oil regulator PNGRB will thismonth offer for bidding CNG retailing licences in 100 citieson revised terms, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan saidtoday.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB)has so far held eight rounds of bidding where companies wereasked to quote the tariff for pipeline that carries gas withinthe city limits.
The bidding criteria did not include the rate at which anentity would sell CNG to automobiles or piped natural gas tohouseholds using the same pipeline network, leading tocompanies offering one paisa as tariff to win licences.
"PNGRB will offer 100 city gas distribution (CGD)licences for bidding on a new model this month," Pradhan saidat a FICCI conference here.
The new model would have a different bidding parameterbesides the geographical or physical area for the licencebeing dynamic, he said.
He however did not offer details of the new biddingcriteria.
PNGRB had in October last year called for industrycomments on an alternate model of bidding criteria fordevelopment of CGD network in the country.
In a bid to encourage wider participation and improvingproject delivery, the alternate model suggests bidding on thebasis of capex committed, transportation tariff and workprogramme.
Besides, exclusivity period is proposed to be doubled to10 years, minimum net worth criteria for bidders tightened,requirement of five technical qualified personnel on permanentroll as compared to three presently prescribed, and districtboundaries to be considered as Geographical Area (GA).
Last few rounds of CGD have evoked lukewarm response. Thefourth round was altogether cancelled while the fifth sawsparse response.
The sixth round of bidding for 34 cities in 2015 got bidsfor only 20. The seventh round of bidding done to set up CGDinfrastructure in 11 smart cities under smart city missionreceived only 1 bid.
Seven cities were offered in the 8th round last year butnot all cities have been awarded so far. PTI ANZANU.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.