East India to get Rs 51,000 crore funding via LNG project

Dhamra LNG Terminal and the Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra pipeline project (JHBDPL) together will bring in investments worth Rs 51,000 crore into the economy of eastern India, said Union petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan.  

Of the total outlay, Rs 13,000 crore will be spent on JHBDPL pipeline infrastructure, Rs 6,000 crore on city gas distribution (CGD) projects in seven cities, Rs 6,000 crore on Dhamra LNG Terminal, and Rs 26,000 crore on revival of Gorakhpur, Barauni, Sindri and Talcher fertiliser plants.

Pradhan was speaking at the ground breaking ceremony for 5-MMTPA (million metric tonnes per annum) LNG (liquefied natural gas) Regasification Terminal at Dhamra Port, located in Bhadrak district of Odisha.

The ceremony, however, was marred by absence of chief minister Naveen Patnaik, the chief guest for the occasion, who skipped the function after his party men were peeved with non-display of Patnaik’s picture cutouts within the meeting venue which was replete with large posters of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

Besides Patanik, BJD leaders from the Bhadrak district including two state cabinet ministers, MLAs and local MP, who figured in the guest list were conspicuous by their absence in the meeting.

The LNG Terminal, the first of its kind in the eastern India, is being built jointly by Adani group, Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) and GAIL (India) Ltd at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore and expected to be commissioned by 2019-20. The work on the project would start after the monsoon in September.

The terminal will be used for receipt, storage and regasification of LNG and it will cater to CGD networks. And industrial hubs in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Angul, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda and Rourkela in Odisha. Thirteen districts of Odisha will benefit from 773 km long pipeline passing through the state.   

The natural gas from the terminal would also be supplied to various CGD networks coming up in other eastern India cities like Ranchi, Bokaro, Jamshedpur and Kolkata. Piped gas for households apart, the network would cater to CNG for automobiles and clean fuel needs of commercial establishments and industries.

The LNG terminal would also meet the gas requirements of three oil refineries of IOCL situated in Barauni, Haldia and Paradip. “Use of eco-friendly natural gas is expected to reduce carbon footprints in Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. These states are currently not able to get the benefits of natural gas in sectors like domestic, transport, industries, as the region is bereft of LNG terminals and not connected to cross-country gas pipeline grid,” Pradhan said.

He said, after meeting the domestic demand, LNG from Dhamra can be supplied to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan.

The LNG terminal at Dhamra is part of Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Yojana, a flagship energy project which was launched by Prime Minister Modi at Varanasi for supply of natural gas through the 2,540-km-long pipeline to different customer segments in Uttar Pradesh and eastern states.

R-LNG (Regassified LNG) from the terminal will be transported through the Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra pipeline being laid at a cost of Rs 12,940 crore. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has earlier approved a capital grant of 40 per cent, amounting to Rs 5,176 crore, for this project being implemented by GAIL (India) Ltd.

The JHBDPL project is expected to be completed by December 2020. As part of this project, CGD networks will be set up in seven important towns in eastern India, namely, Varanasi, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

Among others, CEO of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (AOSEZ), Karan Adani, chairman of IOCL, Sanjeev Singh, chairman of GAIL (India), BC Tripathi and CEO of Dhamra Port Company (DPCL) Subrat Tripathi were present on the occasion.