Varanasi: For cleaner and more sustainable energy sources, around 50 compressed biogas (CBG) plants will come up at different places in Uttar Pradesh in days to come. Union minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said this here on Sunday.Talking to reporters, the minister said CBG can be utilized as green renewable automotive fuel, and it can replace CNG in automotive, industrial and commercial areas, given the abundance of biomass availability within the country.Biomass sources like agricultural residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud, municipal solid waste and sewage treatment plant waste produce biogas.There is a Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA) to encourage and promote biofuel and work in this direction is underway, said the minister.GBA is an initiative by India as the G20 Chair. Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with leaders of Singapore, Bangladesh, Italy, USA, Brazil, Argentina, Mauritius and UAE, had launched the GBA in September 2023, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi. The Alliance intends to expedite the global uptake of biofuels through facilitating technology advancements, intensifying utilization of sustainable biofuels, shaping robust standard setting and certification through the participation of a wide spectrum of stakeholders. The alliance will also act as a central repository of knowledge and an expert hub. GBA aims to serve as a catalytic platform, fostering global collaboration for the advancement and widespread adoption of biofuels.On Sunday, the union minister inaugurated the citys second floating CNG Mobile Refueling Unit (MRU) station at Ravidas Ghat, which is the countrys second such station built to fill CNG in boats, after the Namo Ghat CNG station. Under its CSR initiative, GAIL has entered into an agreement with Varanasi Nagar Nigam (VNN) for conversion of boats to environment-friendly fuel CNG. Till date, 735 such boats out of 890 registered with VNN have been converted to CNG under GAILs CSR program at a cost of Rs 18 crore.GAIL has invested over Rs 350 crore for creating city gas distribution (CGD) infrastructure in Varanasi and another Rs 100 crore will be spent by 2024. The Varanasi CGD project is part of the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project and was inaugurated by the Prime Minister in 2018.Apart from these two floating CNG stations, GAIL also operates 24 CNG stations while work of another 13 CNG stations is in progress for supplying the environment-friendly fuel to more than 8,000 four-wheelers, 17,000 three-wheelers and around 100 buses.Puri said GAIL is also providing piped natural gas (D-PNG) to over 32,000 households, 61 commercial units like hotels and restaurants and 13 industrial units. PNG connectivity to another 40,000 households is in progress.

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