Gas Authority of India Ltd (Gail), the country’s largest gas marketing company, would invest Rs 8,000 crore to expand its pipeline network. Of this, Rs 7,600 crore would be invested in constructing a 2,050-km pipeline from Jagdishpur to Haldia, company Chairman U D Choubey said today. So far, this is the single largest investment in any pipeline by Gail.
“We are hopeful that there will be no difficulty in mobilising the resources, given our strong balance sheet,” Choubey added. The project will be executed in two phases. In Part A of the first phase, 1,410 km of pipeline will be laid from Haldia to Phulpur along with spurlines to consumers like Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation at Durgapur and Barauni, Fertilizer Corporation of India at Sindri and Barauni, power plants at Barh and Bettiah and City Gate Stations (CGS) at Patna, Chapra, Siwan, Gopalganj and Bettiah. Under Part B of the first phase, spurlines and feeder lines will be laid for a length of 450 km to the CGS at Kolkata, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Varanasi and Allahabad and West Bengal Power Development Corporation plant at Sagardighi.
Phase-II of the project will involve laying of 190 km of feeder lines to CSES Haldia, WBPDC Bandel and Katwa, DPL Durgapur and SAIL’s plants at Durgapur and Bokaro and a petrochemical plant at Barauni.
Part-IA of Phase-I of the project is scheduled to be completed by December 2011, while Part-IB will be completed by March 2011. The second phase of the project is expected to be completed by December 2013.
An investment of Rs 250 crore would also be made for a 275-km pipeline between Karanpur-Moradabad-Kashipur-Rudrapur. The company would also invest Rs 200 crore to upgrade the capacity of the existing Bajera-Agra-Ferozabad pipeline.
Gail today owns and operates a network of over 7,100 km of natural gas high-pressure trunk pipeline with a capacity to carry 155 metric million standard cubic metres a day (mmscmd) of natural gas across the country. During the 11th Plan period, Gail would build 5,000 km of pipelines at an estimated investment of Rs 28,000 crore. Following this expansion, Gail would have a capacity to carry 300 mmscmd of gas.
