"Natural gas is the bridge fuel for India's industrial decarbonisation." Examine with reference to the iron and steel sector.

A bridge fuel is a lower-carbon fossil fuel used until zero-carbon options are ready. In 2026, NMDC agreed with GAIL Gas to switch its 2-million-tonne Nagarnar pellet plant from furnace oil to natural gas [1]. The deal shows that gas can act as a bridge in steel, but only for part of the journey.

Why gas qualifies as a bridge in steel

• Cleaner combustion: switching from furnace oil aims to cut emissions and improve process efficiency and pellet quality [1]. Gas emits less SOx and particulate matter than liquid fuels.
• Infrastructure readiness: a new 130-km Damanjodi–Nagarnar line extends the Dhamra–Damanjodi pipeline [1]. That network is fed by the 2,655-km Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga eastern backbone [2].
• Policy alignment: the switch supports the target of raising gas to 15% of the energy mix by 2030, from about 6.3% [3].
• Anchor demand: some Indian pipelines run at only 10–20% of capacity [4]. Large steel PSUs give such lines assured demand, which lowers per-unit costs for later City Gas Distribution users.

Limits of the bridge

• Narrow abatement: pellet-making only prepares the ore. Most steel CO₂ comes from coke-fed blast furnaces, and Nagarnar is itself a coke-based integrated plant [5]. Gas is also a fossil fuel, so it still emits CO₂.
• Import exposure: gas in the eastern grid enters through Dhamra port [1], largely as imported LNG. The switch moves price and supply risk from the oil market to the LNG market rather than removing it.
• Supply constraints: scarce domestic gas already limits how much ageing pipelines are used [4]. This keeps delivered gas costly compared with coal.
• Lock-in risk: gas assets last for decades and may delay deeper cuts. The EU's CBAM taxes carbon across the whole steel product, so savings at the pellet stage alone will not protect exports.

Making the bridge lead somewhere

• Coal/oil → natural gas → green-hydrogen-based reduction → green steel.
• Build hydrogen-ready gas assets and scale up the steel pilots under the National Green Hydrogen Mission. Three such pilots, including one by SAIL, have been sanctioned [6].
• Spread supply risk through dual-fuel capability and several LNG contracts.
• Extend piped gas from Nagarnar to households in Bastar so that local communities share the benefits.

Overall, gas is a real but partial bridge for steel. It cleans up fuel-intensive stages and makes use of the gas grid, but it leaves the coke-based core of steel-making untouched. If gas is treated as a time-bound step towards green hydrogen, backed by diverse supply, India can decarbonise steel in line with SDG 9 and SDG 13 and its 2070 net-zero pledge.