New Delhi: India plans to triple the pace of bringing households onto piped natural gas (PNG), targeting a three-fold rise in new users to 4 million this fiscal, as the West Asia war puts its heavy reliance on imported cooking gas under strain. The push will focus on getting more households to actually use piped gas, rather than merely expanding the network, Anil Kumar Jain, chairman of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, said.
“CGD (city gas distribution) players have been asked not to just report PNG infrastructure connection numbers, but also the number of gasified connections,” Jain told Mint in an interview.
While higher use of the largely locally-sourced piped gas will ease India's import reliance on West Asia-routed liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, there remains the infrastructure challenge: 6.2 million of India’s total 16.9 million PNG household connections did not have access to gas supply as of end March 2026.
Towards this, city gas firms have been asked to focus on the number of billed connections, customers that receive and consume gas, rather than just the addition of connections.
In a significant development, the petroleum ministry on Tuesday approved an incentive scheme to promote domestic PNG connections. Under the scheme, scheduled to come into effect on 1 September, eligible city gas distribution companies will be allocated an additional 200 standard cubic meter (SCM) of domestically-produced, lower-priced gas for every incremental billed domestic PNG connection achieved during the performance period, over and above the threshold level determined for the respective territory.
The additional gas allocation will substitute the costlier liquefied natural gas (LNG) that CGD entities currently procure for their compressed natural gas segment for vehicles, thereby lowering their overall gas-sourcing costs.
Getting connected
As of 30 June, there were 17.4 million PNG connections in the country, of which 11.5 million had gas supply, said Jain.
As of 30 June, there were 17.4 million PNG connections in the country, of which 11.5 million had gas supply, said Jain. “Last year, about 13.40 lakh connections were gasified. This fiscal, the plan is to increase the number of new gasified connections to 40 lakh.” In FY25, the number of new gasified connections was 1 million.
About 8,18,684 connections had been gasified during April-June, Jain said.
In January 2026, the regulator had launched the PNG Drive 2.0, with an aim to increase the piped gas network and consumers across the country, and the campaign ran till end June. The country now plans to launch the third phase of the campaign from 1 October, the chairman said.
India's expansion of piped natural gas infrastructure and gasification of new connections has gained momentum amid the ongoing war in West Asia, which triggered a severe crunch in LPG supply, which largely come from the region.
During the PNG Drive, from January to June 2026, the average gasification of connections rose to 7,275 per day from 2,728 during April-December 2025, Jain said.
An official with a city gas distribution (CGD) operator, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said customers were reluctant to switch to PNG as they wanted to retain their LPG cylinder connections in case of any future requirement, and getting a new connection was tedious.
"Now, the effort is to expand the network to areas that have so far not been touched. CGD operators are now taking PNG network to the doorsteps of households and after that door-to-door campaign and awareness programmes are also held to increase PNG adoption," the city gas company official said.
Big importer
India imports 65% of its LPG requirement. With 90% of the total LPG imports worth about $11 billion being dependent on the war-impacted West Asia, the government is looking for ways to reduce cooking gas consumption by promoting alternative fuels, and PNG has emerged as a key viable and accessible option. PNG supplies have so far been shielded from the West Asia supply disruption as its requirement is so far met through domestic natural gas production.
Queries related to India's piped gas push emailed to city gas players Indraprastha Gas Ltd, Mahanagar Gas Ltd and the ministry of petroleum and natural gas remained unanswered until press time.
India's push for increased adoption of piped natural gas started not long after initial disruptions started due to the war in West of Asia and blockade of crucial trade routes. In March, the government asked PNG consumers to surrender their LPG connections within three months.
On 25 May, in a strong push, the government barred households with PNG connections from refilling LPG cylinders in a bid to conserve cooking gas supplies. A notification by the petroleum ministry said consumers shifting to PNG must surrender their LPG connections or obtain a transfer voucher within 30 days to enable future access in non-PNG locations.
Accelerating migration
And then, in June, the petroleum and natural gas ministry asked states to accelerate migration of LPG consumers to PNG wherever the infrastructure was available.
Earlier, on 25 March, the government had said city gas entities would reach out to all eligible LPG consumers who are near the piped gas network, and within 90 days of receiving a notice from the operator, the household would have to shift to PNG. This is, however, yet to properly play out.
Prashant Vashisht, senior vice-president and co-group head, corporate ratings at Icra Ltd, said: "The 90-day timeline is yet to be applicable in some places. Further, consumers are also reluctant in some instances to pay the deposits (for new PNG connection) which may be around ₹6,000 in some cases. But with the government's directive to consumers to relinquish LPG in locations where PNG infrastructure is available, we may see conversions taking place now."