CNG push for langar at Golden Temple

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 19

Under the Smart City project, work has been launched to lay a CNG (compressed natural gas) pipeline to replace LPG and wood as the cooking fuel at Sri Guru Ram Dass Ji langar hall in the Golden Temple.

Municipal Corporation Commissioner, Sonali Giri said the pipeline was being laid at a cost of Rs 500 crore. Initially, it will cover the stretch from the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) on the Vallah bypass to Rattan Singh Chowk in the city.

She added, “The pipeline will receive CNG from the main supply at Bathinda, Ludhiana and Jalandhar. Work will be finished in the next two years.”

In the first phase, domestic connections will be provided to 25,000 households. Ten fuel stations will be established in the city for CNG-run vehicles. It will pave the way for the switchover of auto-rickshaws to CNG from fossil fuel, a major source of air pollution in the holy city.

The Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC), which has laid a network of over 16,000-km-long gas pipeline and set up 233 CNG stations, is executing the work.

On an average, 90 LPG cylinders are used to prepare langar for nearly 60,000 people daily at the Golden Temple.

Officials at the langar hall say the introduction of CNG would end the use of wood as cooking fuel.

The authorities have also planned to set up a biogas plant at a cost of about Rs 90 lakh at the Golden Temple to utilise the large amount of vegetable waste being generated in the community kitchen. It will be set up in collaboration with the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).