CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday unveiled city gas distribution (CGD) infrastructure investments worth Rs 1,700 crore for Chennai, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu districts. The investments are from AG&P Pratham, the CGD arm of Atlantic Gulf & Pacific (AG&P), Singapore, a leading global downstream gas and LNG logistics company.
The Chief Minister laid the foundation stone for AG&P Pratham’s second city gate and mother station in the State at Vallam-Sriperumbudur, Kancheepuram, and commissioned its first Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) station at Meenambakkam, Chennai.
AG&P Pratham’s city gate station will receive natural gas from IOCL’s natural gas pipeline and the mother station will distribute the clean fuel to industrial, commercial and domestic consumers through a Piped Natural Gas (PNG) and CNG distribution network.
Abhilesh Gupta, managing director, AG&P Pratham, said, “We are honoured to collaborate with the Government of Tamil Nadu to establish city gas infrastructure in the industrial hub of Tamil Nadu, and bring this safe and environmentally-friendly alternative to our customers. Our second city gate and mother station in the State will provide power plants, industrial, commercial and domestic consumers uninterrupted access to this competitive fuel.”
Over the next eight years, the company plans to commission 113 CNG stations and instal 11,50,000 domestic PNG connections in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu districts. “We are focused on achieving the State’s mission to transform into a gas-based economy, and hope the wide availability of natural gas will spur even more manufacturing while simultaneously generating employment for over 3,400 people and trigger overall economic and social progress with healthier air,” Gupta added.
In February, AG&P Pratham signed an MoU with the State government to invest Rs 2,700 crore over the next eight years to build CGD networks in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Vellore, Ranipet, Thirupathur and Ramanathapuram districts. The present Rs 1,700 crore investment is a part of this.
New beginnings
The CM laid the foundation stone for AG&P Pratham’s second city gate and mother station in the State and commissioned its first Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) station