Five Kalyani houses first to get piped gas in state
Times of India | 19 November 2025
Kolkata: Piped natural gas reached the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) area last week, with Bengal Gas Company Limited commencing PNG supply to households in Kalyani.
The pipeline has to travel another 50 km to reach Baranagar, located on the northern fringes of Kolkata. This will enable the re-introduction of piped gas to homes in Kolkata after several decades. Greater Calcutta Gas Supply Corporation (GCGSC), the predecessor of Bengal Gas, used to supply piped gas to different parts of the city since the 1950s. It took over the operations of the Oriental Gas Company Ltd, which started providing gas to the city a century earlier in 1857. This gas was used to light street lights in Kolkata.
The Bengal Gas Company Limited (BGCL), a joint venture between GAIL and the state-owned GCGSC, started the supply of PNG to five homes in Kalyani. Among them, Paromita Biswas, a resident of Ward 19 in Kalyani Municipality, got the first connection, when the line to her home was activated last Tuesday. Biswas said, "PNG is very convenient to use. Also, now that the cylinder is out, I have got some empty space in my kitchen."
In Kolkata, BGCL started PNG supply to Uniworld and Rosedale complexes in New Town in Dec 2023 by carrying gas in cascade from Panagarh and then, flowing it into a pipeline infrastructure there to the kitchens. "But in Kalyani, we have laid a 6.3-km-long pipeline and started gas supply only through pipeline infrastructure. So, we can say the PNG supply has begun in a true sense. Our target is to supply PNG to 2,000 households in Kalyani in one year. We will also start PNG supply in Chandernagore, Debanandapur and Gayeshpur in three months, for which the pipeline work is in an advanced stage," BGCL CEO Anupam Mukherjee said.
The company has installed gas meters in 5,425 households' kitchens so far, of which 267 are in Kalyani. BGCL has installed gas meters in 385, 517, and 371 households' kitchens in Chandernagore, Debanandapur, and Gayeshpur. "We have also installed meters in several households' kitchens in Barasat, Barrackpore and New Barrackpore, but supplying gas there will take time as pipeline construction is underway," Mukherjee said.