Govt launches national LPG portability scheme

The government today launched a portability scheme for cooking gas customers across the country, which would be available for customers of any of the distributors – Indane, HP Gas or Bharat Gas.

Petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily approved the launch of LPG connection portability on all India basis beginning today.

The portability scheme will be rolled out in 480 districts covering all possible markets of the country.

''With this, an LPG consumer in these markets can now switch to the distributor of his / her choice within a cluster of LPG distributors in the vicinity under the LPG Connection Portability Scheme. This measure will bring great relief to those LPG consumers who are unhappy with the services of their current distributor or want to move to an LPG distributor closer to their home,'' a petroleum ministry release said.

As a pilot project, state-run oil marketing companies together launched LPG connection portability scheme in 24 districts covering 13 states in October 2013.

''Today, this scheme is being launched on a full-fledged all-India basis by expanding its coverage to over 480 districts and a population of over 8.2 crore LPG consumers across the country,'' the release said.

In order to facilitate the LPG portability scheme, the OMCs have made more than 1,400 cluster distributors in over 480 districts with an average of almost 4 distributors per cluster to choose from.

The details about these clusters are available on the OMC websites. 

It has also been ensured that the portability scheme now covers all possible markets that are having distributors of multiple companies coupled with the scope for formation of clusters.

The procedure to opt for portability is very simple and LPG consumers need to register for portability on the respective web sites of the OMCs.