As many as 21 more districts in Tamil Nadu will soon witness work to lay lines for the supply of piped natural gas (PNG) to industries and homes, and construction of retail outlets for the sale of compressed natural gas (CNG) to be used in vehicles.

Four companies have won the bids in the 11th round of tendering of geographical areas (GAs) (it can be a part of a district or whole districts) by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) for covering these districts. With this, all districts in the State have been covered under City Gas Distribution Networks (CDGN).

Indian Oil Corporation will cover nine districts through the recently acquired GAs. These include Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Kanniyakumari, Madurai, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Theni, Virudhunagar and Tenkasi. In this latest bidding, the company bagged nine out of 15 high-potential GAs, a press release here said.

IOCL Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya said the company’s concerted efforts to expand the gas business across the length and breadth of the country, reflected its commitment to realise the Centre’s vision of raising the share of natural gas to 15%.

Mr. Vaidya added that in the latest bidding for CGD, they were able to secure nine high market potential GAs, which cover 26 districts across the country. “And with this, Indian Oil is poised to emerge as a dominant player in the Indian CGD Market.”

According to sources, other companies that won the bids include Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL), Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd. (MEIL), and IRM Energy.

A release from MEIL, a multi-sector global engineering major, said by winning the bids for 15 geographical areas, the company MEIL has bagged almost 24.6% of the total GAs that went under the hammer. MEIL was previously awarded 3 GAs under 10th bidding of the CGD, where 32 CNG stations are now operational under the brand name of Megha Gas.

BPCL has been awarded two districts, Erode and the Nilgiris, and the fourth contestant, IRM Energy got Namakkal and Tiruchi.

Already, the remaining 11 districts, including Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Ramanathapuram, Namakkal, Coimbatore and Salem have been covered by the companies, including IOCL, Torrent and AG&P. The State, which perhaps was the last to join the CNG bandwagon in the country, currently has over 50 CNG outlets.