Puri launches the GOBARdhan Scheme, at Bharat Mandapam, in New Delhi. Photo Credit: PIB via PTI
The ₹23,731-crore GOBARdhan scheme aims to drive a 10-fold increase in compressed biogas (CBG) production, save more than ₹40,000 crore in fuel imports, add over ₹75,000 crore to GDP and create more than 1.5 lakh jobs, as the government seeks to turn agricultural and organic waste into a new source of domestic energy.
Speaking at the formal launch of the scheme, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the scheme provides capital assistance as well as guaranteed offtake of the renewable fuel made by processing organic waste such as agricultural residue, animal dung, food waste and other biomass.
Capital support plus guaranteed offtake is likely to lift CBG (essentially methane-rich gas) from current 0.4 million standard cubic metre per day to 4-6 mmscmd, he said, hoping this would help in achieving the target of raising share of natural gas — a cleaner-burning, lower-pollution fuel — in energy basket to 15% by 2030 from the current 6-7%.
Replace fossil fuel
The scheme is designed to replace about 10 million tonne of fossil fuel with clean gas, potentially cutting more than 40 million tonne of CO2 emissions, while producing around 250 million tonne of organic manure for farmers. Mr. Puri said the programme would help turn farmers from “Annadatas to also being the Urjadatas”.
The scheme provides capital assistance of up to ₹30 crore per CBG project across the two eligible capital-support components. For greenfield plants, assistance is set at ₹1.25 crore per tonne per day (TPD) of eligible CBG capacity. Brownfield projects can receive support at 50% of the applicable greenfield rate for additional capacity created through fresh investment.
Plant upgrades
Existing biogas plants upgraded to make CBG can get ₹0.60 crore/TPD, subject to a ₹5-crore project ceiling. To make CBG projects commercially viable, the Centre is offering producers assured offtake of up to 100% eligible output at an administered price of ₹2,110 per million British thermal units – equivalent to about ₹98/ kg.
Published – October 02, 2026 10:31 pm IST
