Key Points
New Delhi: One giant gas grid led by India and spanning Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar may be a reality in the near future, transporting the clean-burning fuel across borders to homes, factories and industrial enterprises across South Asia..
India will connect its north-east gas grid with the national grid in the next two months, and plans to extend and integrate it with the grids of the four neighbours, two people aware of the development said..
If the plan takes a concrete shape, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan would be connected with India's national gas grid via the northeast gas grid," one of the two people said on condition of anonymity..
Connecting the gas grids would broaden India's energy relations with the neighbours and speed up energy transition in the region, as India leverages cross-border energy trade as part of its neighbourhood-first policy..
On 10 February, The Hindu BusinessLine reported that industry executives pressed for a "regional clean energy agenda between South and Southeast Asian nations via interconnected gas and electricity grids" at an international meeting of energy regulators in Goa..
