(ET)
Deadlines for city gas projects will be extended to avoid penalising companies for delays caused by the nationwide lockdown, the head of downstream regulator has said. This would help more than a dozen companies implementing 136 city gas distribution projects across the country.
“We can on our own extend the timeline. Companies would want that,” DK Sarraf, chairman of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, told ET. “We have to be helpful to the industry.” The board will decide the quantum of extension after consultations with the industry. The regulator had issued about 136 new city gas distribution licences over the past two years, picking winners primarily on the basis of the work pledged, including the number of piped gas connections, natural gas stations and length of the proposed pipeline. The companies are penalised for missing annual work programme targets they proposed during bidding. The lockdown has disrupted pipe-laying and other efforts at setting up infrastructure by city gas companies.
