Adani walks away with gas rights for 21 cities BPCL, Torrent Gas other big winners

New Delhi: Billionaire Gautam Adani's group has bagged licences to retail gas in 21 cities in the latest city gas distribution bid round that saw state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd's unit and Torrent Gas emerging as the other big winners.

Adani Gas won rights to retail CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households and industries in 13 cities on its own and another nine, including Allahabad, in joint venture with state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), according to results of 78 out of the 86 cities that were bid out in the country's biggest city gas distribution (CGD) bid round.

According to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), IOC on its own won rights to seven cities, including Coimbatore and Salem in Tamil Nadu and Guna in Madhya Pradesh.

The Bharat Gas Resources Ltd, a unit of state-owned BPCL, won licence for 11 cities like Amethi and Rai Bareli in Uttar Pradesh and Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, while Torrent Gas Pvt Ltd made nine winning bids that included ones for Alwar in Rajasthan, Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh and Karaikal in Puducherry.

The state gas utility GAIL's retailing arm, GAIL Gas, managed rights for four cities, including Dehradun. The Indraprastha Gas Ltd, the firm that retails CNG in the national capital, won city gas rights for Meerut and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.