Nagpur :- In an exclusive interview given to News Today 24×7 special correspondent, Young and dynamic entrepreneur Kaustubh Gupta Shed some light on little known truth about CNG being brought to Nagpur through pipelines and gradually it being piped to households for domestic use. Read below the excerpts of the telephonic interview with Kaustubh Gupta.
Needless to say, Nagpur definitely owes its present grandeur and metro looks due to the inputs, suggestions, foresight, contributions, follow up and dedicated hard work of young entrepreneurs, though very few in number, but definitely poised at out numbering hundreds when it comes to delivering.
Kaustubh Gupta is one such young entrepreneur who is all set to offer his major contribution in getting piped gas(CNG) to Nagpur for industrial use and in the later course of time making it available as piped gas to households for their domestic use thus relieving many households from the trauma of getting a refill of their bottled LPG.
Kaustubh informed that this year end will probably see that the CNG pipelines that are being laid besides the Samruddhi Express Highway will reach the outskirts of Nagpur, if Not Nagpur City. The outskirts will have discharge points, presently one being speculated to be at ButiBori and another one at Bhandara.
Kaustubh recalls having a tough time pacifying people and assuring them that it’s safe to have CNG units in vehicles when he initially started Automobile CNG dispensing pumps. “Consumers were apprehensive about the safety of CNG kits in their vehicles, since they had misconceptions about the CNG gas kit tank exploding and other such baseless and senseless arguments,” but over a period of time clarity and awareness prevailed after months of educating such apprehensive public said Kaustubh Gupta. So much so was the craze for CNG as an alternate fuel for automobiles, despite the price hike and shortage of CNG, the public still opted for CNG and CNG as an alternative to automobile fuel, never saw any decline in sales. 
“People will not accept change, if they are not provided a change” commented the young entrepreneur, when asked whether Nagpurians will welcome this proposed piped CNG to households? He added that unless you increase the benchmark and the standards, how would people come to know about the benefits and advantages of a thing unless you present it to them for them to experience it. Indeed Kaustubh had a very strong point to make here.
Within 5 to 8 years from today, Nagpur might see piped household CNG as an alternative to the conventional bottled cylinder that we have today. And I am supremely confident that each one will benefit and will find it to be an advantageous alternative. Further adding on, Gupta also recalled the tough time in the year 2018 when there was nothing called CNG in Nagpur, and that’s when he initiated CNG pumps in the city, though from scratch. He mentions it to be a herculean task to educate people about CNG and its advantages and benefits, but their toil and hard work reaped fruits and then the Government floated tenders for refueling stations for the entire city but strangely no other like ADANI, GAIL, IOCL, HPCL including Kaustubh Gupta himself couldn’t bag the tender. He clarified that the bidding for the tender was definitely very aggressive, rather over aggressive but ruled out the possibility of a biased bidding since it was online.
Haryana City Gas was allotted the tender, so it is the front face and also since it bagged the tender, but the project is being carried out by Kaustubh, which many don’t know, is the person responsible for executing the project, though being behind the scene. Kaustubh Gupta very modestly refused to take the credit of being the man behind the project execution and stated that,” I’m just executing the project, but the project is owned by the company (Haryana City Gas). He is just getting the experience of the entire pipe laying project which is being done under the supervision of HCG.
It seemed that unlike many others, Kaustubh Gupta was not very keen on getting the credit or the limelight or even the recognition but was just concerned with the timely and proper execution of the project.
It was explained that GCG is the operator while the pipeline is laid down by GAIL, which necessarily has to start from a port, since Gas is produced offshore and brought to the nearest shore thru pipes and from there on its routed out in different direction by pipelines which GAIL lays, and similarly it will be brought up to Nagpur and from there it is then used by the operator through the discharge points which presently is proposed to be in Bhandara or somewhere near to it. There might also be another discharge point at ButiBori, since the pipeline is coming alongside Samruddhi Expressway, commented Gupta, though there is no confirmed information about the discharge point being at Bhandara or ButiBori. Gas is piped through a trunk pipe line which runs from a port near the extraction point, so it can not be ascertained now as to from which trunk line the discharge point will be connected, since GAIL has a network of pipelines across India, somewhat forming a Golden Quadrilateral. Since the demand for CNG is on the rise each day, necessarily to cater to this demand the Trunk Pipelines will have various discharge points in Vidarbha, for which the tenders have already been awarded. He added that in the coming three years Vidarbha will see a boom in demand for Gas. Polluted places like Chandrapur will get some respite due to CNG being used as a substitute for fuel for vehicular use. Since piping gas is a very costly project, hence due diligence is taken so as to ensure and to safeguard the investments of the Discharge Point operator and the Governments investment are not wasted owing to the paucity of consumers and the end users .In simple words, the trunk line can have many discharge points along its path, but putting up a discharge point is totally dependent upon Returns on Investments, that is having consumers to make use of it, else it’s a sheer waste of investments if there are no consumers (Industries, vehicles, population etc.)
He also added that Bio Fuel is surely going to be a game changer for India in coming few years, Since Kaustubh is involved in Bio Energy, he thinks that it is going to play a key role in India’s transition. The sudden awareness of EV, Bio Gas, Bio Fuel, Bio Ethanol and green hydrogen is the living testimony about the same. There is a long wait of almost 8 months for EV vehicles which also points towards the awareness and individual efforts of Indian citizens for a green environment. The emphasis today in India is on Bio Energy, where many companies are also keen in completely shifting to bio energy. Indian Government is also taking care of policies that support this cause and the stake holders involved in this drive”. There are hiccups at the start of each new venture, but eventually every thing gets tackled and fixed”, and India too will see some hurdles in this grand switchover but soon it will overcome them and succeed in Go Green movement.
