LPG supply to be cut off if households refuse PNG switch where available: Government order

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Representative image.

Representative image. | Photo Credit: The Hindu

The authorities has mandated that cooking state LPG proviso to households volition beryllium discontinued if consumers neglect to power to piped earthy state wherever specified connectivity is available, nether a caller bid aimed astatine accelerating state web enlargement and reducing reliance connected a azygous fuel.

As India grapples with an LPG shortage owed to the warfare successful West Asia disrupting supplies from cardinal sources, the authorities is pushing households and commercialized users to power to Piped Natural Gas (PNG) — a much convenient alternate that is some domestically produced and sourced done diversified supply.

PNG is continuously supplied to room burners done pipelines, eliminating the request to publication refills.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has notified the Natural Gas and Petroleum Products Distribution (Through Laying, Building, Operation and Expansion of Pipelines and Other Facilities) Order, 2026, aimed astatine accelerating pipeline infrastructure, easing approvals and promoting a displacement from LPG to PNG to fortify vigor security.

The bid issued connected March 24 states that LPG proviso "shall cease aft 3 months" if a household does not opt for PNG contempt availability. The provision, however, allows continuation wherever it is "technically infeasible" to supply a piped connection, taxable to a no-objection certificate.

The determination is aimed astatine freeing up LPG supplies from areas with pipeline connectivity and diverting them to regions lacking specified infrastructure, portion promoting "fuel diversification" amid planetary proviso disruptions, including harm to liquefaction facilities successful the Gulf and the continued blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.

Commenting connected the order, Oil Secretary Neeraj Mittal successful the station connected X said "a situation (has been) turned into an opportunity" done the easiness of doing concern reforms.

The order, issued nether the Essential Commodities Act, seeks to fast-track pipeline infrastructure by easing approvals, standardising charges and ensuring time-bound permissions.

To facilitate accelerated rollout, nationalist authorities indispensable assistance close of mode oregon permissions wrong prescribed timelines, failing which approvals volition beryllium deemed granted. The bid besides bars authorities from imposing charges beyond those specified.

In lodging areas, entities controlling entree indispensable assistance permissions wrong 3 moving days, and last-mile PNG connectivity is to beryllium provided wrong 48 hours. Applications for pipeline connectivity successful specified areas cannot beryllium rejected.

The bid further provides for involution by designated officers with powers akin to a civilian tribunal to resoluteness disputes implicit onshore entree and assistance close of mode wherever necessary.

Authorised entities indispensable statesman laying pipelines wrong 4 months of support oregon look penalties, including imaginable nonaccomplishment of exclusivity.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has been designated arsenic the nodal bureau to show implementation, including tracking approvals, rejections and compliance.

In lawsuit the close of mode oregon close of usage support to laic pipeline to residences for proviso of PNG is not granted by the entities that power entree to the lodging complex, a announcement volition beryllium issued and 3 months thereafter lipid selling companies volition halt proviso of LPG.

Listing retired "consequences of households not applying for and obtaining PNG transportation erstwhile notified by authorised entity" that has laid a pipeline to proviso specified fuel, it said, "The LPG proviso to specified an code shall cease aft 3 months from the day of the communication."

"The proviso of LPG to a household shall not cease, if the authorised entity issues a no-objection certificate (NOC) connected the crushed that it is technically infeasible to supply a piped earthy state transportation oregon state proviso to specified household," it said.

The authorised entity shall support records of the reasons for specified method infeasibility and retreat the NOC arsenic and erstwhile it is capable to supply and operationalise the piped state connectivity to specified households.

Published - March 26, 2026 07:13 americium IST

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