The consortium outbid others such as GAIL Gas, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, H-Energy East Coast and Bharat Gas Resources to win the rights to offer piped natural gas to the residents as well as CNG to autos and other vehicles in Burdwan.

Gautam Adani's group emerged as the biggest winner by bagging the rights to seven cities, on its own. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board on Friday released the list of winners for 30 cities. Last week, it had released the names for 48 cities.

Apart from winning the bids on its own, Adani Gas in consortium with Indian Oil won four cities, including Burdwan, in the latest list of 30. Indian Oil on its own won three cities.

The regulator said 406 bids from 38 entities were received and 37 bids were not considered on various grounds, including being unreasonably low or high.

Overall Adani Gas won the licence for 13 cities, followed by Bharat Gas for 11 cities, and Indian Oil-Adani Gas for nine cities.

The regulator said the winning bidders for the 78 cities would provide gas to about 15 crore households and 3,627 CNG stations. The facilities must be provided within eight years. They would also supply gas to industrial and commercial establishments.

The PNGRB said any entity securing a piped gas licence would have to enter into a supply agreement with a natural gas producer or a marketer on the principle of "at an arm's length" within 180 days of winning the licence. The entity has to achieve financial closure within 270 days from the date of grant of the licence.