Soon, fill your car with CNG at DTC depots

You may soon be able to get CNG for your cars from a nearby DTC bus depot. HT reports.

You may soon be able to get CNG for your cars from a nearby DTC bus depot.

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Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has agreed to install hybrid gas dispensing machines at its bus depots across the Capital. These dispensing machines would fill tanks of private cars, as well as autorickshaws, running on compressed natural gas (CNG).

According to senior DTC officials, the facility will be initially available at four depots — Dwarka Sector 2, Dwarka Sector 8, Seemapuri and Dilshad Garden — where the machines have already been installed.

“These dispensing machines have been installed close to the depot’s boundary wall. We just need to remove the wall to make them available to the public,” a senior DTC official said.

The transport body signed a memorandum of understanding with Indraprastha Gas Limited — the sole distributor of CNG in Delhi — in this regard. At present, IGL has its gas dispensing facility at 30 DTC depots; the figure is likely to increase to 39 in next three months.

Though the idea was conceived in 2008, it took DTC more than two years to get the necessary approval from Delhi Development Authority — the agency that has provided DTC land for depots — to use it for commercial purposes. The system, said officials, will help earn DTC some revenue. The corporation will get 50 paise for each kilogram of CNG sold from its depot to private vehicles.

While the number of CNG-run vehicles has increased tremendously, the number of filling stations has not been able to keep pace with numbers. At present, there are only 204 CNG stations in the city, including the 30 inside DTC depots.

“Our filling stations are generally used in the morning hours when the buses leave the depot or in the evening, when they return. It will be a good idea to extend this facility to private vehicles,” said a senior DTC official, requesting anonymity.