"More than half of the Blocks in the country do not have LPG dealerships. Half of the people do not have access to domestic cooking gas. This situation has to be rectified," Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said at a conference in New Delhi.
ONGC and Gail would be allowed to market subsidised LPG but only in unsaturated semi-urban and rural markets.
Public sector oil marketers - Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and IBP - have already withdrawn about 5000 locations in the country for LPG dealerships, which had been advertised and are now being advised by the Petroleum Ministry to stop appointing dealers in saturated urban markets.
"Draft policy guidelines have been formulated and will now go to the committee of secretaries," Aiyar said.
ONGC and Gail, besides the four marketing companies, will appoint one LPG dealer for a cluster of 4-5 villages. Though the cooking gas sold in these areas will be subsidised (as is being currently sold to urban markets) the rural consumers would have to pay a small transportation cost.
"Every block (in a district) will have one LPG dealer," he said. Besides LPG, the government is also allowing ONGC and Reliance Industries to market non-PDS kerosene.