Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) and the Delhi Division of Northern Railway have signed an agreement to supply piped natural gas (PNG) to 22 railway establishments across Delhi-NCR, replacing around 500 kg of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and 2,500 litres of diesel consumed each day.
The agreement will initially provide about 3,000 standard cubic metres of gas per day (SCMD), IGL said in a statement. The conversion will cover railway mechanised laundries, officers’ rest houses, base kitchens, running rooms, subordinate rest houses, and guard and ticket examiner lobbies in Delhi, Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar.
Five mechanised laundries — at Delhi Sarai Rohilla, Old Delhi, Anand Vihar Terminal, Hazrat Nizamuddin and New Delhi — are expected to use PNG for boiler operations. The change will allow these facilities to shift from LPG and diesel to a pipeline-based fuel supply, reducing the need for cylinder handling and on-site fuel storage.
IGL said consumption under the arrangement could rise to 8,000-10,000 SCMD in the coming years as pipeline infrastructure and connectivity expand. The company’s authorised geographical areas include Ajmer, Banda, Rewari and Muzaffarnagar, in addition to its existing operations across Delhi-NCR.
The agreement was signed in the presence of senior officials from both organisations and is part of the government’s National PNG Drive 3.0, which seeks to expand natural gas use among transport, industrial, commercial and household users. IGL Chairman Subhankar Sen said the partnership would help replace a substantial quantity of LPG with natural gas, reducing import dependence and the associated subsidy burden.
Delhi Division Railway Manager Pushpesh Raman Tripathi said the arrangement would help Indian Railways reduce energy costs. He added that PNG connectivity could subsequently be extended to railway hospitals and residential colonies, although no specific timeline for those extensions was provided.
The railway agreement comes alongside IGL’s efforts to increase household PNG connections. On October 28, the company announced promotional incentives including a ₹2,000 discount on standard domestic PNG registration charges and ₹500 worth of free gas after activation. The offer is being promoted across Delhi-NCR and other authorised areas through outreach programmes and partnerships with resident welfare associations and apartment owners’ bodies.
IGL operates city gas distribution networks across 34 districts in 11 geographical areas spanning Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. Its infrastructure includes more than 30,000 km of pipelines and over 1,000 compressed natural gas stations, serving more than 2.5 million CNG vehicles and nearly 3.5 million PNG-connected households.
The actual cost and emissions benefits of the railway conversion will depend on gas procurement prices, end-use efficiency and the fuels displaced at each facility. The next phase will involve expanding pipeline connectivity and increasing PNG supply to the participating railway establishments.
