Delhi residents rush to apply for new piped gas connections

Demand for domestic PNG connections in Delhi has surged to 300 calls daily amid LPG shortages, prompting IGL to mobilize additional teams for installations.

Calls seeking domestic piped natural gas (PNG) connections in Delhi have nearly tripled in the past week, officials of Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) said.

Officials said additional teams have been mobilised to handle the surge, with the company currently able to operationalise more than 1,000 domestic connections daily in Delhi. (HT_PRINT)

IGL said it is now receiving around 300 calls daily for new PNG connections, compared to roughly 100 calls a day until last week. The spike comes amid reports of LPG shortages in the city and rising black marketing of cylinders.

Officials said additional teams have been mobilised to handle the surge, with the company currently able to operationalise more than 1,000 domestic connections daily in Delhi.

“Efforts are being made to install as many new domestic connections as possible based on the requests being received. For this, additional manpower has also been deployed,” an IGL official said.

The company said the rise in calls also includes consumers who had earlier put their PNG connections on hold and are now seeking to restart them.

“These include households that already have the infrastructure in place but had put their connections on hold. While we used to receive around 150 to 200 such calls daily until last week, we are now getting over 350 calls every day from domestic consumers seeking to restart their connections,” the official said.

Meanwhile, some existing non-domestic customers said IGL has begun enforcing an 80% supply cap, which officials said is in line with government orders.

Shreesh Sharma, vice-president of the Mundka Industrial Area Welfare Society, said around 30–40% of industries in the area have been affected by the reduction.

“More problematically, we have been told that the 80% supply will be provided on the basis of average consumption over the last three months. It was a lean period and the average consumption was low, but now when we need more gas the cuts have become steep. People who use gas-based generators are even worse hit,” Sharma said.

The Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Delhi also expressed “protest and deep concern” over the decision to impose a 20% reduction in PNG supply to industrial units, citing anticipated supply disruptions arising from geopolitical tensions in West Asia.

In a statement, the chamber said the decision “effectively shifts the burden of an international crisis onto domestic industry, particularly the MSME sector which forms the backbone of Delhi’s manufacturing ecosystem.”

“Over the past decade, industries across Delhi have invested substantial capital to transition from conventional fuels to PNG in compliance with government directives and environmental regulations. These investments were made on the assurance of stable and reliable gas supply. A sudden and unilateral reduction in PNG allocation undermines those commitments and threatens industrial stability,” it said.

“For many MSMEs operating on narrow margins, such a cut may seriously affect business viability and employment. We express concern that such a major policy action appears to have been taken without adequate consultation with industry stakeholders, nor has there been clarity regarding the duration of the proposed restriction,” said Raghuvansh Arora, who heads the chamber.