Increasing LPG Adoption Across India

India

The project aimed to support the Government of India’s efforts to increase LPG adoption. Its specific objective was to demonstrate that Envirofit’s SmartGas System is a viable solution and assess how it could be scaled-up accross India. For this purpose, the Project was intended to establish the base infrastructure and validate the critical market learnings necessary to design a scalable SmartGas business in India. The project was expected to directly benefit approximately 1,000 households, representing nearly 5,000 people, in rural areas of Maharashtra, a state in the western region of India. Project Outcomes: This program did not achieve the intended objectives. This is due to the fact that Saudi Aramco and Shell Foundation grant funds did not materialize for this program, and the lack of funds ultimately compromised the teams’ ability to complete the proposed activities and objectives of pilot. It was not possible to achieve the full program deliverables without the other co-financing, even with the second half of the OPEC Fund grant remaining undisbursed. Envirofit had made a revised proposal to the OPEC Fund to change the grant scope to an achievable objective that could be completed within the available budget. However, it was mutually decided that the best course of action was to end the current program and close the grant. The ‘Pre-Pilot, Phase I’ entailed the following activities: Product Development; Production (including engineering components), and Business Development. As a result, none of the tangible outcomes (beneficiary household) has been reached, but Envirofit is convinced of the opportunity to make lasting impact in increasing adoption of LPG fuel based on the initial findings and lessons learnt from the pre-pilot phase.