The Union government is planning to introduce Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to run all automobiles in Jammu and Kashmir soon. Union Petroleum Minister Murali Deora said this today after attending a high-level regional meeting. The meeting of the three northern hill states of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand, which was held in Srinagar, was chaired by the Union minister.“The move to introduce these fuels will help to protect and preserve the eco-friendly environment of Kashmir,” he said. Deora said that before the introduction of CNG fuel in the state it was prerequisite to first bring in the auto LPG in state. “And also before launching CNG vehicle fuel in the state, we have to introduce auto LPG in Kashmir. The introduction of CNG also demands a permanent gas pipe line and that will take some time,” the minister told reporters here today.The minister said that keeping in view the harsh winter in the state, the Union petroleum ministry has decided to keep the winter stocks available at various district headquarters in the state. “We have decided to keep winter stocks at district headquarters level, so as to avoid any shortage in winter,” he said, adding that the ministry has plans to expand the network. “We are also expanding the network for retailing transport and cooking fuels in three northern states including J&K,” the minister said. “We will soon add 96 gas stations and 30 distributors for cooking gas in these three states. Our focus is to address the energy needs of the three states.” While giving details about its operation, the minister said that there are 266 retail outlets for petrol and diesel in Himachal Pradesh, 333 in J-K and 352 in Uttarakhand. Similarly, there are 120 distributorships for cooking gas in Himachal Pradesh, 154 in Jammu and Kashmir and 169 in Uttarakhand. “The oil marketing companies intend to set up 25 retail outlets for petrol and diesel in Himachal Pradesh, 49 in J-K, and 22 in Uttarakhand,” he said.Deora said the coverage of cooking gas in the three hill states was is more than double the national average of 45 per cent. The petroleum minister also ruled out immediate hike in prices of petrol and petroleum products “We have no plans to hike prices of petrol or petroleum products in the near future,” he said.
