By Himangshu Watts
NEW DELHI, Nov 27 (Reuters) - GAIL India Ltd is expanding its network for supplying compressed natural gas (CNG) in India and is in talks with several countries to set up CNG stations, the firm's chairman, Prashanto Banerjee, said on Wednesday.
India has taken a leading role in promoting natural gas on its roads with some 57,000 vehicles, mainly buses, taxis, and autorickshaws in New Delhi, being run on CNG.
"India's demand for CNG for automobiles and piped gas to households will rise five times in the next 10 years," Banerjee told Reuters.
He said the demand would rise to more than five million cubic metres (180 million cubic feet) per day from less than one million cubic metres.
The company would spend 5.50 billion rupees ($114 million) to set up CNG stations in five cities in India apart from New Delhi, Bombay and some parts of gas-rich Gujarat, where CNG is already being used.
The new cities include Agra, where volunteer groups say air pollution is threatening the Taj Mahal, and Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh, the state closest to the gas reserves of seven trillion cubic feet discovered recently by Reliance Industries.
He said state-run GAIL, India's largest gas marketing company, was in talks with Iran, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Kazakhstan for promoting the use of CNG as an automotive fuel.
Several Asian countries are considering the use of CNG to reduce harmful emissions from automobiles, particularly after a recent U.N. report on air pollution.
The report said a three-km (two-mile) thick cloud of pollution shrouding southern Asia was changing rainfall patterns and putting millions of people at risk from flooding and drought, with dire implications for economic growth and health.
Asian countries also see CNG as an effective way to reduce the import of oil as the region's crude oil reserves are small but natural gas is abundant in several countries.
Gas-powered vehicles are being rolled out in the Philippines Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and South Korea.