Make in India opens up ₹22,600-cr infra biz avenues

The rapid expansion in city gas infrastructure undertaken by the government will open a ₹22,600 crore 'Make in India' market for ancillary equipment needed for piping natural gas to households and refueling CNG vehicles, said official sources. The program has an investment potential of ₹90,000 crore. Expansion of CNG and PNG services will also create nearly four lakh direct jobs opportunities. The projections are bound to lift the mood as it comes amid slowing economic growth. Only 34 GAs (geographical areas, akin to licence areas across districts in a state) in the country had city gas distribution networks till 2014. Since then, the government has given out 174 GAs for building city gas distribution networks. After 136 GAs are given out in the ninth and 10th rounds of auction, the city gas distribution networks will cover 70% of the population and 53% of the country's geographical area, spanning 400 districts across 27 states. Such a scale of network expansion will need huge quantities of pipes, mechanical equipment, smart meters, PNG regulators, compressors, booster pumps etc, which will open up opportunities for domestic manufacturing and there will be demand for 3.75 lakh skilled, semiskilled and unskilled manpower to run and maintain the networks.