Petroleum Ministry points instructions to strengthen pure fuel infrastructure, tackle delays

Seeking to speed up the push for piped pure fuel (PNG), the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), late on Tuesday (March 24, 2026), invoking the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), instituted reforms to ease provisions in direction of increasing piped fuel community — each home and business.

The Ministry underlined the reforms had been geared toward “addressing delays in approvals and access to land, and enabling faster development of natural gas infrastructure, including in residential areas”, alongside instituting an investor-friendly community and bettering last-mile connectivity.

Further, they search to cut back “compliance burden” by means of simplified procedures and clearer documentation necessities.

The Ministry’s push for increasing piped pure fuel (PNG) is geared toward easing a few of the stress from liquified petroleum fuel (LPG), provides of which have been affected amidst the ongoing tensions in West Asia.

However, as underlined by officers throughout the each day inter-ministerial briefings concerning the ongoing battle, present home manufacturing of LPG is accounting for 50-60% of consumption necessities.

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The bigger push for PNG

In reality, within the latest previous, to cushion business institutions and allow an incentivised transition to piped fuel, the Ministry accorded further business cylinder allocation of as much as 50%, which is inclusive of a ten% quantum conditioned on States and Union Territories working to advance the piped fuel community. CGDs additionally sought to offer incentives as free fuel as much as ₹500 and/or waiving off safety and registration prices for home customers.

Further, important to notice, The Hindu learnt from senior officers that India has the potential so as to add 15 lakh new PNG connection within the subsequent two weeks. They acknowledged that addressing last-mile connectivity amidst unfavourable metropolis infrastructure in sure areas was among the many main hurdles which is being expeditiously addressed amidst the latest push.

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Clearer timelines, procedures

The directive underlines particular timelines, starting from ten days — for laying metal pipes or PE pipes, to sixty days for laying pipeline of metal pipelines of greater than 20 inches in diameter and for a distance past 10 km.

Additionally, in public areas that aren’t housing areas, the gazette seeks that if the involved entity (that could possibly be the central govt, state govt or city authorities) neither rejects nor grants permission for laying of pipelines inside stipulated timelines, the appliance could be “deemed approved”.

Finally, in a significant transfer in direction of facilitating ease of enterprise, the directive institutes outlined compensation and restoration mechanism for ‘dig and restore’ in addition to ‘dig and pay’, to avert disputes with native authorities.

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Permissions for laying pipelines in housing areas inside three days

The gazette course underlines that in housing areas, the related entities must grant needed permission to “lay, build or expand” a pipeline inside three days of receiving an software. Further, they’d have forty-eight hours to accord approvals for last-mile connectivity.

More importantly, the provisions state that provide of LPG to the households within the space shall stop inside three months after the CGDs has formally knowledgeable concerning the functions not being granted the mandatory permissions.

Essential to notice right here, the provision shall not stop if the CGD entity points a no-objection certification (NOC) affirming that it’s “technically infeasible for the authorised entity [that is, CGD] to provide a piped natural gas connection to such household”.

(With inputs from Nistula Hebbar)