Essar venture rolls out Rs 900 crore plan for 100 LNG retail outlets

NEW DELHI: Ultra Gas & Energy Ltd (UGEL), a new-age clean-tech venture of the Essar group, plans to invest Rs 900 crore to expand its LNG (liquefied natural gas) retail network for freight carriers to 100 outlets across India, the company said on Monday.It has already commissioned six refuelling stations along major freight corridors. These are located in Bhilwara (Rajasthan), Anand (Gujarat), Chakan-Pune (Maharashtra), Jalna (Maharashtra), Toranagallu (Karnataka), and Vallam (Tamil Nadu), making the clean-burning fuel accessible to freight carriers serving key industrial and logistics hubs.Each outlet is future-ready with integrated infrastructure to support EV (electric vehicle) charging as part of the company’s long-term vision of creating a bouquet of multi-fuel, low-emission mobility solutions. work on building outlets in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are in progress. Each UGEL station has a scalable capacity of 50 tonnes, capable of refuelling up to 600 LNG trucks per month. Each station can reduce up to 66,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually, collectively reducing 1 million tonnes of CO₂.To ensure uninterrupted operations, UGEL has partnered with IOCL, GAIL, HPCL and other leading LNG suppliers with access to all major LNG terminals of India, ensuring consistent fuel supply and enabling smooth scalability.Strategically placed to serve high-density logistics zones, these stations are accelerating the shift from diesel to LNG – a cleaner and more efficient fuel for long-haul trucking.“Our retail outlets are catalysts for a cleaner, smarter logistics future. Backed by robust infrastructure and intelligent energy solutions, we are proud to lead India’s transition toward greener fuels and sustainable mobility. UGEL vision is firmly rooted in innovation, efficiency, and environmental responsibility,” a company statement quoted CEO Maqsood Shaikh as saying.By enabling commercial fleet to shift away from high-emission fuels to cleaner alternatives such as LNG and electric power, UGEL is delivering both environmental and economic value to its customers, the company said.