Chennai, Oct 11 (IANS) A 17-year-old boy studying in a polytechnic tied the nuptial knot with a 16-year-old minor girl at a bus shelter in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu in the presence of onlookers. The video of the incident went viral on social media and the Cuddalore police arrested the boy under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.

The district police and the District Child Protection Unit launched an investigation after the video of the act went viral and finally, the police arrested the boy on Tuesday.

The boy was sent to a juvenile observation home in Cuddalore while the girl was given counselling at the office of the child welfare committee. The Cuddalore police in a statement on Tuesday said that it arrested another person, Balaji Ganesh. P (51) for circulating the video of the marriage.

Balaji was booked under the Juvenile Justice Act, Prevention of Women Harassment Act, and the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act as the boy and girl belong to the Scheduled Caste.

Shillong, Oct 11 (IANS) After having 'strained relationship' with the National People's Party (NPP), which dominated Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced to field candidates in all the 60 seats in the next assembly elections, due in February next year.

Meghalaya BJP President Ernest Mawrie said that the party would contest in all 60 Assembly seats in the state in the assembly election, which is less than five months away from now. "The BJP would do well in Meghalaya in the upcoming polls as the people are very happy for the schemes being implemented by the BJP-led Central Government," Mawrie told the media.

He said that the party has already finalised its strategies to take on the other parties in the ensuing assembly polls.

In the last assembly polls in 2018, the BJP had nominated 47 candidates including two women nominees, and won two seats - Pynthorumkhrah (Alexander Laloo Hek) and South Shillong (Sanbor Shullai). Shullai is now a cabinet minister of the MDA government headed by Chief Minister and the NPP President Conrad K. Sangma.

With two members, BJP is the junior partner of the NPP-led MDA government but the saffron party's relations have been deteriorating since last year on various policy matters.

Last month, state BJP leaders threatened to withdraw support from the MDA government. But the party is now silent on the pullout decision. BJP MLA and Minister Shullai, who holds the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, Arts and Culture, Prisons and Correctional Services, Labour Departments, recently indicated that his party might not withdraw support from the MDA government.

With state BJP leaders largely mum after their pullout threat, political pundits are saying that the party's Central leaders did not endorse the state unit's decision. Chief Minister Sangma has already termed the state BJP leaders' threat as an "individual decision" while NPP state President W.R. Kharlukhi described it as "total farce".

Meghalaya BJP President Ernest Mawrie, former Health and Family Welfare Minister Alexander Laloo Hek, BJP national Vice-President and party's Meghalaya in-charge M. Chuba Ao earlier separately said that the state party leaders unanimously decided to withdraw support from the MDA government but the final decision would be taken by the Central leadership.

To a query about the reasons behind the decision to quit the ruling coalition almost at the end of the full five year term, Hek had told IANS that "everything would be disclosed and explained in detail at an appropriate time".

NPP's relation with the BJP had been gradually souring over various issues, specially after the arrest of BJP state Vice President Bernard N. Marak, who was arrested from Uttar Pradesh by the Meghalaya Police on July 25 for allegedly running a brothel in the West Garo Hills district.

Hyderabad, Oct 11 (IANS) From a gun-wielding Maoist to lawyer to a legislator and now PhD in political sciences, Danasari Anasuya's life is full of struggles.

Seethakka, as the Congress leader and member of the Telangana Assembly, is popularly known, Tuesday took to Twitter to declare that she has completed the PhD from Osmania University.

The 50-year-old tribal MLA did her PhD in social exclusion and deprivation of migrant tribals of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh - a case study of Gotti Koya tribes in Warangal and Khammam district.

"In my childhood, I never thought I would be a Naxalite (Maoist), when I am Naxalite, I never thought I would be a lawyer, when I am lawyer, I never thought I would be MLA, when I am MLA I never thought I will pursue my PhD. Now you can call me Dr Anusuya Seethakka PhD in political science," wrote Seethakka, MLA from Mulugu.

"Serving people & gaining knowledge is my habit. I will never stop doing it until my last breath," she said.

She thanked her PhD guide Prof. T Tirupathi Rao, former Vice Chancellor of Osmania University, HOD Prof Musalaia, Prof Ashok Naidu, and Prof Chandru Nayak.

Congratulations poured in for Seethakka on her achievement. Leaders of Congress and people from different walks of life congratulated her and expressed their best wishes for her future endeavors.

Party's central leader and incharge of party affairs in Telangana Manickam Tagore, state Congress chief A. Revanth Reddy, and senior leader Madhu Goud Yaskhi were among those who congratulated her.

Belonging to the Koya tribe, Seethakka had joined Maoist movement at an early age and was heading an armed squad active in the same tribal belt. She participated in many gunfights with the police and lost her husband and brother in encounters.

Disillusioned with the movement, she surrendered to the police under a general amnesty plan in 1994. With this, life took a new turn for Seethakka, who pursued her studies and secured a law degree. She also practised as an advocate at a court in Warangal.

She later joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and contested from Mulug in 2004 elections. However, facing a Congress wave, she finished runner-up. However, in 2009, she won the election from the same constituency.

She finished third in 2014 polls and in 2017, quit the TDP to join Congress. She made a strong comeback in 2018 by wresting the seat despite the statewide sweep by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

Seethakka hit the headlines with her humanitarian work in remote villages in her constituency during Covid-19 pandemic.

Carrying a load of essentials on her shoulders, she walked through the forests, rocky terrain and crossed rivulets to help the needy during the ongoing lockdown.

Having operated in the same forest as a gun-wielding Maoist rebel in the late 1980s and early 1990s, she was not unfamiliar with the terrain. The only difference, in her own words, was that as a Maoist had a gun in her hand and during the pandemic she carried food and other essential commodities.

 Rajkot (Gujarat) [India], October 11 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public meeting at Jamkandorna in Rajkot district of Gujarat today.
"Being in Jamkandorana is always special," tweeted PM Modi. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel along with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders of Gujarat were present at the public rally.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is on a Gujarat visit on Monday laid the foundation stone and dedicated to the nation multiple projects worth over Rs 8,000 crore at Amod, Bharuch.
He laid the foundation stone of Bulk Drug Park at Jambusar, Deep Sea Pipeline Project at Dahej, Phase 1 of Ankleshwar Airport and the development of Multilevel Industrial Sheds at Ankleshwar and Panoli.
The Prime Minister also dedicated several projects which will give a boost to the chemicals sector in Gujarat including GACL Plant, Bharuch Underground Drainage and IOCL Dahej Koyali Pipeline.
He said the foundation stone of Bharuch Airport in Ankleshwar has also been laid so that the people here do not have to depend on Baroda or Surat.
Noting that Bharuch district has more industry than some other small states of the country, he said that with the new airport project, the region is bound to take the high road in terms of development.
"This is the new face of Gujarat. Gujarat, in the last two decades, has transformed from a state lagging in every field to a thriving industrial and agricultural state. With busy ports and a developing coastline, the lives of the tribal and fisherman community got transformed," he said.
PM Modi said that due to the hard work of the people of Gujarat, a golden age has started for the youth of the state.
"We should not lose this opportunity by creating an enabling environment free of obstacles, he said. Both policy and intention (Niti and Niyat) are needed for realizing these dreams, he said. (ANI)

 New Delhi [India], October 11 (ANI): The Chief Justice of India UU Lalit on Tuesday recommended Justice DY Chandrachud's name as his successor to the Centre in accordance with the convention.
Justice Chandrachud is to become the 50th CJI and will assume office on November 9. Once appointed he will have a tenure till November 10, 2024. The Union Law Ministry had last week initiated the process for the appointment of the next CJI, asking the outgoing CJI to recommend his successor.
Today, CJI Lalit requested all judges to assemble in the judge's lounge at 10.15 AM as he handed over the letter, naming his successor.
Justice Lalit succeeded Justice NV Ramana, who retired on August 26. CJI Lalit had a brief tenure of 74 days as the head of India's judiciary and would demit office on November 8.
According to the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), which governs the process of appointment of judges in the higher judiciary, the outgoing CJI initiates the process of naming the successor after getting a communication from the Law ministry.
The MoP states that the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court is considered fit to hold the office of the CJI and the views of the outgoing head of the judiciary have to be sought at the appropriate time.
The MoP, however, does not specify the time limit for the initiation of the process of recommending the name of the successor CJI.
Justice Chandrachud is the second most senior judge of the Supreme Court.
Justice Chandrachud's father Justice YV Chandrachud was the 16th Chief Justice of India serving from 2 February 1978 to 11 July 1985.
Justice Chandrachud, born on 11 November 1959, was appointed judge of the Supreme Court on 13 May 2016. He was the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court from 31 October 2013, until his appointment to the Supreme Court. Justice Chandrachud was the judge of the Bombay High Court from 29 March 2000 until his appointment as Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.
He had also served as Additional Solicitor General of India from 1998 until his appointment as a judge in the Bombay High Court. He was designated as a senior advocate by the Bombay High Court in June 1998. (ANI)

 New Delhi/ Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 11 (ANI/PRNewswire): IIFL Finance , one of India's largest retail-focused diversified non-banking financial companies, has partnered with Credgenics , the leading provider of SaaS-based collections and debt resolution technology solutions worldwide, to implement Credgenics' end-to-end debt collections technology platform. Digitization to drive the next level of efficiencies and profitability. ML-based strategies to strengthen customer-focused approach in collections.
Credgenics AI-powered collections platform, deployed at IIFL Finance, covers a range of solutions across the collections stages from pre-due management to post-due recoveries. The platform has enabled completely digitized loan collections at IIFL with ML-based analytical capabilities to segment borrowers and roll out tailored collections strategies. With Credgenics, IIFL has implemented a multichannel strategic digital communications approach resulting in reduced bounce rates, higher recoveries, and enhanced customer engagement. The CG Collect mobile app has digitized field collections with its innovative capabilities including agent route map planning, proximity-based allocation, google maps navigation, field force tracking, unified borrower details, and simplified visit management. The Billzy digital payments application ensures that IIFL borrowers can easily complete their loan repayments digitally through custom payment links embedded in the communications. Credgenics, recognized as the top market-leading loan collections platform in India by IBS Intelligence in their Annual Sales League Table 2022, has reduced the operations cost with its automated and simplified processes.
Credgenics has also implemented 'Project Litigal', derived from 'Legal + Digital', a unique approach to digitize the collections related to legal processes at IIFL. Credgenics dashboards provide a 360-degree view of all litigation activities while integration with eCourts offers legal case tracking, real-time updates, and reminders. With Credgenics, the entire legal communication including notices, summons and warrants, across the lifecycle is sent digitally with tracking capabilities. Advocate dashboards that provide a comprehensive overview of the associated activities and costs incurred, offer enhanced visibility and transparency. An advanced version of the platform's mobile app will further provide advocates with quick access to notices and eCourts data.
Sanjeev Srivastava, Chief Risk Officer, IIFL Finance said, "Delivering disruptive products by combining innovation and setting a new benchmark in customer-centricity is a key differentiator for IIFL Finance. We take great pride in being the trendsetter when it comes to making our solutions and processes future-oriented. We partnered with Credgenics as we believe that their platform will bring in tremendous business agility, dynamism, and efficiencies across our collections value chain."
Sandeep K Rajput, Head Legal Recoveries, IIFL Finance said, "I would like to extend my thanks to the Credgenics team for their utmost efforts to set up the process of Litigal. Now, a new era has begun which is called 'LITIGAL', a unique form of Legal + Digital. We adopted it at a very fast pace through Credgenics and implemented the way of legal in Digital. This will definitely set up a new precedent in IIFL Finance while we move forward with a 100 per cent digital hybrid model. The legal and recovery team is dedicated to implementing all processes in this manner one by one. Automation of legal notices, servicing in a digital way, Chatbot, AI, IVR for legal cases is the way forward."
Rishabh Goel, Co-founder, and CEO of Credgenics said, "We are proud to be working with IIFL Finance for the digital transformation of debt collections. IIFL is a pioneer in leveraging technology innovations to redefine customer experience and Credgenics is extending this approach to collections. Soon after implementation, our market-leading platform has made a significant positive impact to the key collections-related metrics at IIFL, and we are confident of delivering more business value in the future."
IIFL Finance Ltd is a leading retail-focused diversified NBFC in India, engaged in the business of loans and mortgages along with its subsidiaries - IIFL Home Finance Limited and IIFL Samasta Finance Limited. IIFL Finance, through its subsidiaries, offers a wide spectrum of products such as Home loan, Gold loan, Business loan, Microfinance, Capital Market finance and Developer and Construction finance to a vast customer base of over 8 million customers. IIFL Finance has widened its pan-India reach through an extensive network of branches spread across the country and various digital channels. https://www.iifl.com/
Credgenics is the leading provider of Loan Collections and Debt Resolution technology platform to Banks, Non-banking finance companies, FinTechs, and ARCs worldwide. The SaaS-based platform provides solutions for end-to-end collections lifecycle including digital collections, multi-channel communications, calling, predictive dialers, litigation management, digital payments, mobile-based field collections, dashboard, and analytics. Credgenics reduces the time and cost to collect, increases the collections rate, brings down the NPAs, improves operational efficiencies, and transforms the borrowers' experiences. Credgenics works with 75+ customers and handles USD 2 bn NPA stage retail loan book value, and USD 6 bn delinquent stage retail loan book value. It manages 22 million retail loans and sends 50 million digital communications every month. With Credgenics, lenders have increased resolution rates by 20 per cent, improved collections by 25 per cent, reduced collections cost by 40 per cent, reduced collections time by 30 per cent, and improved legal efficiencies by 60 per cent. https://www.credgenics.com/
This story has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content in this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)

 New Delhi [India], October 11 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed greetings on the occasion of Parkash Purab of Guru Ramdas, on Tuesday.

The famous Guru Ramdas was the 4th Sikh Guru and has immense contributions to Sikh history. PM Modi said that Guru Ramdas Ji made an indelible contribution to Sikh history and culture, emphasising service and compassion.
Taking Twitter, PM said, "I bow to Sri Guru Ramas Ji on the auspicious occasion of his Parkash Purab. He has made an indelible contribution to Sikh history and culture with an emphasis on service and compassion."
PM also hailed Guru Ramdas as an outstanding poet and his works reflected a pure spirit of devotion."
The birth anniversary of Guru Ram Dass is celebrated as Parkash Divas or Parkash Gurpurab. He is called the founder of the holy city of Amritsar.
On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Guru Ram Das, devotees queued up in large numbers to celebrate the ocassion and took a holy dip in the Golden Temple Sarovar.
The Chief Minister of Punjab Bhagawant Mann also hailed Guru Ramdas on his birth anniversary and greeted people on the occasion.

"Congratulations to all the devotees on the occasion of Prakash Purab of the founder of the holy city Sri Amritsar Sahib... the fourth Patshah Sahib Sri Guru Ram Das Ji", Mann tweeted.
Mann further said that Guru Sahib also gave a message to humanity in his entire life and composed Gurbani to live life with love, egoless and service spirit.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also extended his greetings on the occasion of Parkash Utsav.

"Hearty congratulations and best wishes to all the people of the state and the Sikh community on the holy Parkash Utsav of Guru Sahib Shri Guru Ramdas Ji Maharaj," Yogi said. (ANI)

 New Delhi [India], October 11 (ANI/PRNewswire): RateGain Travel Technologies Limited (RateGain), a global SaaS company for travel and hospitality, has today announced that it has been selected by Royal Orchid Hotels to drive profitability and better connectivity with bundled solution offering from RateGain.
As one of India's fastest-growing hospitality chains with a wide footprint catering to leisure and business travelers, the Royal Orchid group is looking to capitalize on the excellent growth recovery with a strong upcoming festival season in India and inflow of foreign tourists. Royal Orchid Hotels will be implementing RateGain's award-winning Rate Intelligence solutions bundled together with channel manager platform for reliable and improved connectivity to demand partners globally.
With a strong recovery in travel and the country reopening, short-term demand volatility continues to make it difficult for hotels to track market changes in real-time and identify opportunities to either maximize their margins during high-demand dates or manage the impact on bookings in case demand falls.
Also, with new Online Travel Agents (OTAs) emerging globally and demand increasing across digital channels, hotel chains cannot afford to miss out on new demand emerging in different geographies across the world.
To counter these challenges and maximize revenue & occupancy opportunity, Royal Orchid Hotels has selected a bundled offering from RateGain, whose technology would provide them with real-time competitive pricing intelligence and improved connectivity to a wide network of OTAs globally. By leveraging the growing inter-operability of RateGain's products, the Group was able to fulfil its requirements across Sales, Marketing & Distribution through a seamlessly integrated single platform.
RateGain's Real-time Rate Intelligence Solution will help the Group to optimize their pricing strategy in accordance with the current market trends and competitor rates. Through an easy-to-use platform, Optima users can track rates across multiple channels - Mobile, Meta, Member & Market (Geographic point of sale).
RateGain's Channel Manager with a comprehensive demand partner network will enable the group to deliver unique booking experiences to its guests along with boosting its visibility across continents.
Commenting on the partnership Prashant Mehrotra, Chief Operating Officer, Regenta & Royal Orchid Hotels said: "As travel demand is returning strongly and with tourists flow expected to pick up, we are looking for innovative solutions to have a competitive edge to optimize our pricing and have better visibility across demand partners. In the current environment with many uncertainties looming, it was essential to have one partner who can provide us with a single platform for accurate real time intelligence and connectivity across global OTAs making it seamless and efficient for us to manage."
Commenting on the partnership, Bhanu Chopra, Founder and Chairman, RateGain, said, "We are delighted to deliver our bundled solution to Royal Orchid Hotels on a single platform providing them high-quality revenue insights and better connectivity to demand channels across the globe. Travel demand is recovering well and our combined capability to deliver actionable data along with better visibility, will help unlock revenue for the Group. It is a privilege to support Royal Orchid Group's hotel portfolio through the current recovery and beyond."
Royal Orchid & Regenta Hotels is one of India's fastest-growing hospitality brands, managing a portfolio of over 75+ properties with 4,600 rooms across the country. Catering to leisure and business travelers, the group's hotels and resorts are present across metro cities, holiday destinations, pilgrimage sites, adventure sites and wildlife parks. Royal Orchid Hotels has traded on the Indian Stock Exchanges since 2006. For more information, please visit https://www.royalorchidhotels.com/
RateGain Travel Technologies Limited is a global provider of SaaS solutions for travel and hospitality that works with over 2200+ customers in over 100+ countries helping them accelerate revenue generation through acquisition, retention and wallet share expansion. RateGain is one of the world's largest processors of electronic transactions and price points for the travel and hospitality industry and is the largest Software as a Service ("SaaS") company in the hospitality and travel industry in India.
This story has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content in this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)

 New Delhi [India], October 11 (ANI): India's gems and jewellery exports witnessed a 27.17 per cent growth in September to Rs 30,195.21 crore (USD 3765.51 million) as compared to Rs 23,743.46 crore during the same month last year, data released by the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) showed.
Since the start of the financial year 2022-23, the overall gross exports of gem and jewellery rose 12.82 per cent to Rs 161,545.06 crores on a cumulative basis (USD 20,580.11 million) as compared to Rs 143,187.15 crore (USD 19,359.01 million) for the same period last year, data showed. With this, the sector has achieved 45 per cent of the total export target of USD 45.7 billion for the current financial year. "With a robust growth of gem & jewellery exports in September, the last quarter of the year is expected to be more fulfilling as sales will be driven by the Holiday season and festivities," Vipul Shah, Chairman of GJEPC said.
Plain gold jewellery has continued to gain traction with an average growth of 19.43 per cent (in dollar terms) post the India-UAE CEPA agreement.
"However, there are a few bottlenecks which if resolved would further boost the gem and jewellery trade between India and UAE. Lab-grown diamond exports continue to have a positive run, focused measures will further strengthen such exports from India," Shah said, adding that he was confident the sector would certainly achieve the export target.
Following is the item-wise break up of exports of gems and jewellery during the April-September period and for the month of September:
For the period of April - September 2022, the overall gross exports of Cut and Polished diamonds grew 4.71 per cent to Rs 95,805.48 crores as compared to Rs 91,495.04 crore for the same period last year.
In September 2022, the overall gross export of Cut and Polished diamonds grew 21.99 per cent to Rs 17,107.64 crore as compared to Rs 14,023.78 crore in September 2021.
For the period of April to September 2022, the provisional gross export of total Gold Jewellery (plain and studded) increased 24.88 per cent to Rs 38,939.62 crore as compared to Rs 31,182.32 crore for the same period last year.
For September 2022, the total gross export of Gold Jewellery (plain and studded) witnessed a growth of 25.42 per cent to Rs 7,067.17 crore as compared to Rs 5,634.86 crore for the same period last year.
In the financial year-to-date (April to September 2022), provisional gross export of Plain Gold Jewellery grew 26.92 per cent to Rs 16,395.42 crore as compared to Rs 12,917.66 crores for the same period last year.
For September 2022, the total gross export of Plain Gold Jewellery witnessed a growth of 30.78 per cent to Rs 2,556.40 crores as compared to Rs 1,954.78 crores for the same last year.
For the period of April to September 2022, provisional gross exports of all kinds of Studded Gold jewellery surged 23.43 per cent to Rs 22,544.21 crore as compared to Rs 18,264.67 crore for the same period last year.
For the month of September 2022, the total gross export of all kinds of Studded Gold jewellery went up by 22.57 per cent to Rs 4,510.77 crore as compared to Rs 3,680.08 crore in September 2021.
In the fiscal year-to-date, provisional gross export of Polished Lab-Grown Diamonds soared 70.26 per cent to Rs 7,407.56 crore as compared to Rs 4,350.81 crore for the same period last year.
From April 2022 to September 2022, the provisional gross export of coloured gemstones jumped 54.62 per cent to Rs 1,642.93 crore as compared to Rs 1,062.57 crore for the same period last year.
From April to September 2022, the provisional gross export of Silver Jewellery increased 42.68 per cent to Rs 13,735.07 crore as compared to Rs 9,626.64 crore for the same period last year.
For the period of April 2022 to September 2022, provisional gross export of Platinum Jewellery grew 52.46 per cent to Rs 153.5 crores as compared to Rs 100.68 crore for the same period last year. (ANI)

 Vellore (Tamil Nadu) [India], October 11 (ANI/PRNewswire): AG&P Pratham, a leading player in the Indian City Gas Distribution (CGD) industry, has launched Tamil Nadu's first Liquified Compressed Natural Gas (LCNG) station near Manthangal Village, Walajah Taluk, Ranipet District. The LCNG Station was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Thiru. M.K. Stalin, in a virtual event which was also graced by Thiru. Thangam Thennarasu, Minister of Industries and Thiru. V Irai Anbu, IAS, Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu. Located in Wallajah Taluk, Ranipet, the new station was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Thiru. M.K. Stalin.
Speaking at the event Abhilesh Gupta - Managing Director & CEO mentioned that the LCNG Station is the first of its kind in Tamil Nadu and that the commissioning of this facility is a significant step toward transitioning Vellore & Ranipet cities and surrounding areas into a gas-based ecosystem, fueling industry growth and prosperity in the region. The facility will cater to the piped natural gas requirements of domestic households, industries, commercial establishments and CNG for the transport sector. The company will be developing 300 km of pipeline network in Vellore-Ranipet area by the end of FY23. The new station will benefit 30000+ households and 325 industrial and commercial establishments across Vellore, Ranipet and Thirupattur. AG&P Pratham is developing CGD networks in 6 districts of Tamil Nadu including Kanchipuram, Chengalpattu & South East Chennai, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur and Ramanathapuram. By consistently expanding its footprint in the state, AG&P Pratham aims to cover 1 lakh domestic connections within a year and shall cover 22 lakh households across Tamil Nadu in the next eight years. To date, AG&P Pratham has launched 27 CNG stations in Kancheepuram-Chengalpattu Districts & South East Chennai, 3 in Ramanathapuram District and 14 in Vellore & Ranipet Districts. The company plans to launch 22 more CNG stations in the state by March 2023.
Gupta further said that AG&P Pratham is grateful for the continued support from the State government and local authorities in helping AG&P strengthen the CNG infrastructure in TN and for their sustained pursuit of cleaner energy sources. We are working aggressively at the grassroots level to further the Government's vision of migrating towards a gas-based economy. With the new LCNG station, the area will now have easy access to natural gas which is a cleaner and affordable fuel for households, industries, commercial establishments and vehicular transport.
With AG&P Pratham's constant endeavor to create an environmental friendly ecosystem, we are promoting the use of CNG which has several merits over traditional fuels like diesel and petrol. CNG has the strongest safety record and compelling economic benefits to vehicle owners. Natural Gas helps reduce air pollution caused by vehicles and industries and helps the country move towards responsible growth and energy sufficiency.
AG&P Pratham has authorizations to develop CGD networks across 12 Geographical Areas covering 34 districts across 8 per cent of India and 64 million people in the states of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. In its twelve Geographical Areas, AG&P Pratham is developing and operating CNG stations for vehicles, piped natural gas to homes, industries and commercial establishments. AG&P Pratham through its India-wide CGD network, plans to cover more than 278,000 and will have over 1,500 CNG stations and more than 17,000 inch-km of pipelines. AG&P Pratham has recently won the India 2022 'Energy Company of the Year' at 'The Economic Times Energy Leadership Awards'.
AG&P Pratham is presently operating CNG Stations in the districts of Andhra Pradesh: Anantapur, Kadapa, Chittoor, Sri Sathya Sai, Sri Balaji, Annamayya and Nellore Districts; Karnataka: Kolar, Mysuru, Mandya, Chamrajnagar, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Kodagu, Bagalkot, Koppal, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Shivamogga, Uttara Kannada and Haveri; Tamil Nadu: Kanchipuram, Chengalpet, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur and Ramanathapuram; Kerala: Alappuzha, Kollam, and Thiruvananthapuram; Rajasthan: Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Barmer.
This story has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content in this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)