 "Gail launches Bhuvan-Gail Portal")
In order to address the pipeline securitty concern, Gail India Ltd in collaboration with National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), a unit of India Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has launched an innovative surveillance geo-portal called Bhuvan-Gail Portal utilising space technology for its pipeline application.
Despite all challenges, Gail has proved that the space technology can be efficiently used for monitoring the pipeline Right of Use (RoU). At present, Gail, which has over 13,000 km of pipeline network, carries out monthly monitoring of pipeline RoU through helicopter surveys. Gail will start live satellite monitoring of the pipeline RoU by January 2016 and is also looking for alternative methods like advanced unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which can also be integrated with this system.
Gail has also developed an innovative mobile application, from which the pictures of the exception taken locally from any mobile describing the actual scenario can be uploaded instantly to the portal. A report system integrated with this Bhuvan-Gail portal can send alerts to the relevant executives via SMS and email regarding the changes noted along the RoU and also arrival of any new satellite imagery. To establish the technical feasibility of utilising space technology for its pipeline applications, Gail started the study with imageries from Indian satellites and later shifted to very high resolution foreign satellites.
Pipeline securities is a major issue across the world and with recent progress in satellite sensing technology, availability of new high resolution satellites, object oriented image analysis, etc, there is a possibility to introduce space technology for pipeline monitoring applications.
Gail’s R&D pilot project on satellite monitoring of pipeline RoU for 610 km long Dahej-Vijaipur pipeline is one such effort to keep pace with the technological advancement, enabling time and cost effective solutions. Bhuvan-Gail portal is operated with manual as well as auto-change analysis options to monitor the changes along natural gas pipeline RoU.
