Pipeline of dreams filled with gas

As usual we ran out of cylinder last week, and it took us two days to get a new one and for both the days we had to eat outside and also pay a heft amount to get our cylinder. Every one in India knows that getting a cylinder is such a bad experience. And moreover owning a cylinder has its own hazards coming along with it. Due to all the repercussions surrounding LPG based cylinder system, it is beneficial to have a system where natural gas is directly supplied through a pipe, called as city gas distribution network (CGD)
Hence the Petrolem and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has called for bids to setup city gas distribution systems across almost 200 cities/Towns in India, and as is the case with many grand schemes it is going at a very slow pace.
It is important to understand that in the energy hungry society that we live in, having CGD pipelines help the society a lot. Imagine where every one of us can simply pay our gas bills online, and natural gas continues to flow unabated and hassle free. No kitchen will remain shut due to absence of natural gas. 
Unfortunately, among the developed and developing nations India has one of the lowest penetrations of piped gas and hence the need to setup the infrastructure. We lag behind Pakistan in the total number of piped gas network laid out. A city gas distribution network requires an effective system of gas production, gas pipeline of various configurations and a gas consuming economy which is widespread and has dedicative captive usage. While dedicated captive usage is the only area in which India has an existing potential with all other areas of the infrastructure required for a gas economy lagging. So, in order to manage the dreams of connecting 200 cities to piped gas means a massive investment in the infrastructure which countries like India do not have a successful track record to boast about. Also there are studies which indicate that CGD is a volume business but not a high profit business, making it less lucrative to many short-term/medium term investors. With this thought process in place, I asked my room mate why is natural gas required for retail purpose? The answer was cooking. But, if there was no natural gas but only electricity available, can cooking happen? Then his response was that, no. Because a rajasthani dish "Daal baati" can only be made on fire and hence cannot happen on an induction stove and so, natural gas is required for cooking. I knew that certainly wouldn't be the reason to provide natural gas. 
Then I realized that if analyzed properly natural gas can be replaced by electricity as the means of heating and cooking and so, there is no need of CGD.
Let us compare both the scenarios: Setting up a natural gas based economy in a gas deficit nation like ours would mean setting up massive infrastructure which we are not geared upto. On the contrary India has a hugely penetrated distribution network of electricity in place. Why can't it be improved to mitigate the piped gas requirements of India. Even on the economic front, producing electricity through natural gas and then distributing it would provide more efficiency and can be better controlled. And emissions are much lesser of-course due to the centralized usage of natural gas. 
A deeper study of viabiltity of replacement of electricity with natural gas as a primary source of energy for retail purpose is required to justify the case either ways.
But my hunch says unless "daal baati" is the most important dish, investments into city gas distribution network isn't necessarily the right choice for India.

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