Gaya: Following LPG shortage in the wake of the US-Iran war and subsequent developments, residents of Gaya are looking forward to PNG connections to meet their kitchen fuel requirements. The task of providing PNG connections to cooking gas consumers in Gaya district has been jointly entrusted to Indian Oil Company and Adani Gas. Of late, work on the project has gathered some momentum.According to Aman Rao, senior engineer in charge of the PNG project, PNG supply-related work is going on in several localities of the town, including Shastri Nagar, Magadh Colony, Siddharth Puri, Ashok Vihar and SS Colony. Altogether 2,200 PNG connections have been made operational and by the end of 2026, about 2,800 more households will get PNG supply.Asked about the earlier projection putting the number of PNG households in Gaya at 10,000, Aman said besides Gaya, his team was engaged in PNG supply-related work in Nalanda district too and the 10,000 figure included connections in Nalanda district.Asked about the progress of work in localities like AP Colony, White House Compound, Housing Board Colony and New Area, Aman said work in these areas will be taken up at a later stage as pipe laying is yet to begin there.Aman also claimed hotels were getting preferential treatment in the matter of PNG connections and a couple of hotels in Bodh Gaya have switched to PNG. According to Arvind Kumar, a prominent hotelier of Gaya town, the pace of work for PNG supply to hotels is very slow and needs acceleration. He said his hotel has switched to a hybrid kitchen as both LPG and coal are being used as kitchen fuel.As per official statistics, the number of LPG consumers in the district was 7,90,941. LPG was being supplied through 67 distributors spread across the district. Bharat Petroleum has the maximum number of distribution outlets with 27 agencies. Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum have 24 and 16 agencies respectively.
