The city currently has 16.92 lakh connections. Among the other metros, Delhi has a nil waiting list while there are 4.97 lakh and 4.04 lakh pending applications in Calcutta and Chennai respectively.

Further, the government was planning to clear the waiting list for LPG connections in the whole country by the year 2001-2002, the minister said here today.

Public sector oil companies alone would release 70 lakh new connections during 1999-2000, he said. Meanwhile, Mahanagar Gas Ltd (MGL), which supplies compressed natural gas (CNG) to households via pipelines would give 60,000 additional connections by December 2000.

It would extend its area of operation by laying pipelines from Andheri to Dahisar in the western suburbs and from Bhandup to Mulund in the eastern suburbs. Naik said the governmenthad taken a policy decision to reach LPG to smaller towns.