Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) has entered into a strategic agreement with the Delhi Division of Northern Railway to replace the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and diesel with piped natural gas (PNG) at 22 railway establishments across Delhi, Ghaziabad, and Gautam Buddha Nagar. Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding signed on Friday, IGL will provide an initial supply of approximately 3,000 standard cubic metres of natural gas per day (SCMD) to support the operational requirements of these facilities.
The shift is projected to eliminate the daily consumption of roughly 500 kg of LPG and 2,500 litres of diesel, according to a statement from the company. The initiative aims to enhance efficiency at critical railway infrastructure, including mechanised laundries located at major terminals such as Old Delhi, New Delhi, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Anand Vihar, and Delhi Sarai Rohilla. Beyond laundry services, the transition will cover various other installations, such as base kitchens, officers' rest houses, subordinate rest houses, and designated lobbies for guards and ticket examiners.
IGL Chairman Subhankar Sen described the partnership as a collaborative effort toward national development. He noted that the initiative would not only help the national transporter replace a significant quantity of LPG with natural gas but also reduce India's reliance on imported fuels and alleviate the associated subsidy burden. Officials suggested that this agreement could serve as a replicable model for expanding the transition to natural gas across the wider Indian Railways network in the future.
Pushpesh Raman Tripathi, the Delhi Division Railway Manager, stated that the adoption of PNG is expected to lower energy costs for the railways. He further indicated that the scope of the project might expand, with plans to potentially extend PNG connectivity to railway hospitals and residential colonies in the coming years. As pipeline infrastructure matures across IGL’s operational zones, including districts like Ajmer, Banda, Rewari, and Muzaffarnagar, the company expects the natural gas consumption under this arrangement to rise to between 8,000 and 10,000 SCMD.
This institutional shift runs parallel to IGL’s broader efforts under the government-backed PNG Drive 3.0 to increase household adoption of pipeline gas. To encourage domestic conversions, IGL recently announced promotional incentives for residential consumers, including a ₹2,000 discount on standard registration charges and an additional ₹500 worth of free gas upon activation. These outreach programmes are being coordinated with resident welfare associations and apartment bodies to broaden the company's network reach.
Currently, IGL manages an extensive city gas distribution network across 34 districts in 11 geographical areas, encompassing parts of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan. The company’s infrastructure spans over 30,000 km of pipelines and serves more than 1,000 CNG stations. With a current customer base of approximately 3.5 million PNG-connected households and 2.5 million CNG vehicles, the partnership with Northern Railway represents a significant expansion into the institutional and commercial consumer sector.
While the transition offers the benefit of a continuous fuel supply—thereby reducing the logistical challenges associated with handling and storing diesel and LPG cylinders—the company noted that ultimate cost savings and emission reductions will depend on prevailing fuel prices, operational efficiency, and overall consumption patterns.
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