Gujarat Gas to set up 200 CNG stations in two years

Mumbai: In its most ambitious expansion ever, city gas distribution company Gujarat Gas Ltd is planning to set up 200 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations across India in the next two years, even as the government pushes the idea of electric vehicles.

Last financial year, the company added 69 CNG stations, the highest ever to its tally of over 344 CNG stations.

Gujarat Gas Ltd (GGL) is present across 23 districts in the State of Gujarat, Union Territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Thane Geographical Area (GA) (excluding already authorised areas), including Maharashtra's Palghar district. In 10th CGD bidding round announced by the PNGRB, the company has won 6 GAs comprising 17 cities in the state of Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

"The management has guided for setting up another 200 CNG stations over the next two years, which is expected to drive double-digit volume growth in the CNG segment over FY20-22E. This creates more stability in volume trends and also a stronger margin profile for the company," Centrum Research said in its report dated 31 July.

For the first quarter of this financial year, Gujarat Gas posted a 91.65% increase in net profit to ₹234.04 crore, against ₹122.12 crore a year ago. Sales rose 48.13% to ₹2614.61 crore during the quarter, from ₹1765.13 crore in the same period of the previous financial year.

The company's operational revenue was up 47% to ₹2,671 crore in the first quarter, against ₹1,814 crore in the year-ago period. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization or EBITDA margin jumped sharply to ₹5.6 per standard cubic metres.

The company has around 23,200 km of gas pipeline network. It distributes around 8.5 million metric standard cubic metres of gas per day to about 13,55,000 households, around 2 lakh CNG vehicles (serving per day) and to over 3,540 industrial customers.