Piped gas lights stoves in Annapurna temple food court

Varanasi: Finally piped natural gas (PNG) supply line reached the kitchens of Annakshetras (food courts) run by Shri Annapurna Annakshetra Trust on Sunday. GAIL had earlier charged kitchen of the Annakshetra of the Kashi Vishwanath temple on Apr 17.Former UP minister and City South MLA Neelkanth Tiwari, GAIL’s executive director H K Garg and Annapurna temple’s Mahant Shankar Puri jointly inaugurated the service and switched on the stoves to mark beginning of PNG service at Unit 1 and Unit 2 kitchens of the Annakshetra.Tiwari termed the launch of PNG service at Annapurna temple’s food court as a major achievement, benefiting thousands of pilgrims, sadhus and others who receive prasad here daily.

With the commencement of PNG service, there will be no disruption — neither now nor in the future — in the distribution of prasad. He congratulated all GAIL officials for making the initiative a success.Garg said this was a significant step towards ensuring availability of clean and affordable energy by GAIL under the Varanasi City Gas Distribution project. Previously, approximately 600 LPG cylinders (300 each) were being used every month in Unit 1 and Unit 2 of the Annakshetra kitchen, he said.

“Following launch of PNG service, the cylinders will be sent to other locations as required”, he said, reiterating that GAIL continues to work towards delivering clean energy to various areas across the city and district.Mahant congratulated the GAIL India team for succeeding in meeting the challenge of bringing the piped gas even through the narrow lanes of Kashi. GAIL swiftly commenced PNG gas supply, and the entire unit deserves commendation for this achievement, he added.Since the launch of the ambitious PNG project by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jul 2018, extending the network to the oldest parts of Varanasi had not been priority in the original plan of the project. Despite the LPG crisis triggered by disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, no major hue and cry for LPG cylinders remained evident in Varanasi since rationing of LPG had begun by Feb-end.However, the city came to limelight when the Annapurna Temple decide to stop using LPG cylinders once stock emptied on Mar 14.

Acting promptly, district magistrate Satyendra Kumar asked civil supply officials to ensure supply of LPG cylinders to this temple’s kitchen, and also to ensured availability of LPG was not disrupted at mutts, temples, ashrams, gurukuls, residential universities, colleges, hospitals, orphanages, old age homes and other places.State govt, administration and GAIL were bound to rethink their plans regarding old Kashi. GAIL embraced the challenging task of laying pipelines in old Kashi, an area known for its maze of narrow, serpentine and congested lanes. On Apr 17, PNG made its way into old Kashi when stoves of Annakshetra (food court) of the Kashi Vishwanath were lit with PNG. On the same day GAIL’s general manager (Varanasi) Sushil Kumar had mentioned that PNG supply line will be expanding to Annapurna Temple’s Annakshetra and Manikarnika route soon.