India plans to include compressed biogas (CBG) under Priority Sector Lending to provide expedited financial assistance to new projects.

The Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel has also announced financial packages for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to develop CBG plants across India.

The government has stated that it will include bio-manure in the 1985 Fertilizer Control Order that seeks to regulate the trade, price and quality control of fertilisers.

Additionally, oil marketing companies have also agreed to launch long-term agreements on CBG.

These measures form part of efforts taken by the government to achieve targets set under the 2018 Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) scheme. SATAT aims to produce 15 million tonnes of CBG from 5,000 plants by 2023, along with generating 50 million tonnes of bio-manure.

Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, said: “There is immense potential in India’s oil and gas sector and the projects that have been initiated in the recent past would go a long way in ensuring India’s energy security. Biogas production is growing steadily, as more people are setting up biogas plants to produce biogas. Biogas is a renewable, as well as a clean, source of energy. The gas generated through bio-digestion is non-polluting and it reduces greenhouse emissions.”

The Indian government is also encouraging the use of biofuels to increase the green energy mix, reduce imports, generate employment and reduce pollution.

The efforts are in line with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and the ‘Make in India’ initiative.