The West Bengal government has asked the state-owned GAIL to come up with a masterplan regarding their investment plans in the state within three days. The company is planning investments of around Rs 6,000 crore in the state.
“The company’s chairman had a meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Fnance Minister Amit Mitra. He had a meeting with me and WBIDC officials and said that the firm in interested in certain big-ticket investments in Bengal. We have asked them to come up with a proposal on their plans with in 72 hours so that the government can take further steps,” said state Industry and Commerce Minister Partha Chatterjee. According to an official source, GAIL is planning to have investments worth above Rs 6,000-crore in West Bengal.
When asked about the delay in the implementation of the company’s projects in the state, “The earlier government made unnecessary delay in the implementation of GAIL projects and now I believe that there will be no bottleneck in clearing the proposals.” However, the company did not divulge the details regarding investment plans in the state.
“The meetings were friutful and we are going to come up with our proposal soon. We will work for the overall development of the state,” said GAIL Chairman B C Tripathi. The important projects which will include the master plan would be the gasline from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia, stretching 2050 kilometres to meet the demand of gas in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar. The investment for this project in West Bengal will be around Rs 3,000 crore as it covers about 820 km in the state.
According to reports, the firm is also planning a floating “storage and re-gasification unit”, which can store 30 lakh metric ton liquified natural gas (LNG) in a year. The location for the project would be on the Bay of Bengal — about 170 km away from Haldia port and 30 km from Digha. The project would need underwater pipeline of 60 and a 75 km pipeline between Haldia and Digha along sea line. The project is expected to cost about Rs 2,000 crore.
Moreover, the firm is expected to further revive the plans to acquire Greater Calcutta Gas Supply Corporation Ltd (GCGSCL). The firm had earlier done a technical and financial due diligence for management participation in the West Bengal government undertaking. GAIL had also plans to acquire stake in Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL) and was even close to sign a deal on that in the first half of last decade.
