The first edition of NGV India Summit was held on July 14-15, 2016 in New Delhi. The summit provided an appropriate forum to deliberate on the key issues crippling the growth of the NGV business in India. It addressed the various concerns to make natural gas as the fuel of choice in the transportation segment by bringing together sustainable transportation stakeholders from around the world fleets, technology companies, OEMs, infrastructure developers, fuel providers, and government representatives.
NGV summit was inaugurated by Dr. Bhure Lal, Chairman, EPCA, the man behind the Delhi CNG revolution. He emphasized on the urgent need for use of green fuel to run the transportation industry across the country and the various industry and regulatory initiatives which needs to be channelized to achieve this goal. Adding to the discussion of increased use of CNG as a fuel, a very interesting presentation was made by Engie representatives, Mr. Maneesh Varma and Mr. Ovarith Troeung, who presented a new technology for LNG and how it can be the green fuel for future in the country. The discussion also included industry stalwarts like Mr. Rajeev Mathur, MD, Mahanagar Gas, Mr. E S Ranganathan, MD, Indraprastha Gas Limited, Mr. Rahul Bharti, VP Corporate Planning & Govt Affairs, Maruti Suzuki India who emphasized on the need to building infrastructure to fuel NGV growth and the requisite support from government bodies.
The summit also highlighted the new developments and regulations for natural gas engines through a very brief presentation by Dr. S S Thipse, Deputy Director, Automotive Research Association of India. Along with this the Deputy Controller of Explosives, PESO Mr. Ashendra Singh guided the industry on the Statuary provisions for CNG Industry. The summit also discussed the various technological advancement in the field of Natural Gas Vehicles and pledged to take necessary steps towards building a clean green air by promoting the use of green fuel.
The event was well attended by the industry who felt that NGV Summit 2016 provided a platform for stakeholders like OEMs, CGD and retrofittment to make the agencies concerned know about the bottlenecks and expectation for promoting CNG vehicles in India. Many international companies found the NGV LNG transportation market to be farther along than expected and enjoyed the conference with great learning on NGV technology and future roadmap of NGV in India.