Govt moves to green 2 lakh telco towers

New Delhi: The oil ministry is pitching for converting diesel generators (DGs) used by telecom towers to run on natural gas to cut the economy’s carbon footprint by reducing diesel consumption and expanding the clean-burning fuel’s share in India’s primary energy basket.
An oil ministry dossier for states on opportunities in gas-driven economy says India can reduce diesel consumption by 326 million litres a year if around 2 lakh of the over 5 lakh towers switch to gas.



To give a perspective, the quantity of diesel saved is equivalent to roughly four days’ consumption in Delhi, the country’s largest automobile market. This means if all the identified towers are converted, it will save four days’ emission in Delhi.

The conversion push builds on the government’s drive to make natural gas available across 53% of the country’s area by adding 18,000 km of pipelines in the next few years and launch city gas service in 400 districts covering 70% of the population.

The dossier suggests guidelines from the environment ministry to ban or replace DG sets to gas generators as the fuel becomes available in more areas. It also suggests including gas generator manufacturing in ‘White’ category for easier environmental clearance. The government plans to raise the share of gas in the energy basket from 6% to 15% by 2023.