The state minister said this while addressing the inaugural session of a three-day workshop on codes and standards relating to CNG organised by Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL) at the IDB Bhaban in the city.

He also said with the assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB) 26 more CNG stations and three conversion workshops would be introduced under the project of Dhaka Clean Fuel.

Describing the development in consumption of CNG in the country, Mosharraf Hossain said Bangladesh now stands 11th in terms of CNG consumption in the world.

"The government has provided facilities for private investors to lease land for setting up CNG station at only Tk 10 lakh," he said, adding that converting 10,000 vehicles to CNG-run ones and introducing 400 more CNG-run buses are also included in the project.

The state minister stressed the need for providing training for proper maintenance of CNG-run vehicles.

Presently there are 73 CNG filling stations of which 64 are in Dhaka and over 29,000 CNG run vehicles are plying the streets of which about 20,000 are converted, RPGCL Managing Director Abdul Wadud said.

He also said that there are 38 conversion workshops in the country and about 900 vehicles are being converted into CNG-run ones every month.

Presently about 10 mmcfd (million of cubic feet per day) of gas is used for running 29,000 CNG-run vehicles which is less than 1 percent of total gas consumption in the country, he added.

There has been marked improvement in terms of reduction of environment pollution in Dhaka over the last three years, Abdul Wadud observed.

CNG codes specialist Nick White presented the key-note paper in the inaugural session of the workshop.

Resident representative of UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Larry Maramis and Chairman of Petrobangla SR Osmani also spoke on the occasion.