GAIL (India) Limited (GAIL) has approved an investment of INR80 billion for setting up of new pipelines and augmenting capacity of an existing pipeline. The board of GAIL approved an investment of INR76 billion for a 2050-kilometer (km) pipeline from Jagdishpur to Halida. The pipeline will consist of 800 km, 36" trunk pipeline and 1250 km spurlines of diameter 30"/ 24"/18"/12".
The project will be executed under 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 various consumers like Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation at Durgapur and Barauni, Fertilizer Corporation of India at Sindri and Barauni, power plant at Barh and Bettiah and City Gate Stations (CGS) at Patna, Chapra, Siwan, Gopalganj and Bettiah.
Under Phase-I B of the project, spurlines and feeder lines will be laid for a length of 450 km to the City Gate Stations a Kolkata, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Varanasi and Allahabad and WBDPC at Sagardighi. Phase-II of the project will involve installation of a compressor at Haldia and 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 petrochemical plant at Barauni.
A capital expenditure of INR57.3 billion and INR9.2 billion will be incurred on Part-IA and Part-IB, respectively, under Phase-I of the project, while another INR9.4 billion will be spent under the second phase of the pipeline.
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. The project has been designed to cater to gas demand of various customers in the fertilizer, power plant, steel, petrochemical and small and medium scale units in the states of eastern UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
An investment of INR2.5 billion for 275 km pipeline from Karanpur – Moradabad –Kashipur – Rudrapur was also approved by the Board. This pipeline will consist of 100 km of 12” diameter section and another 175 km of spurlines of varying diameters.
The proposal to upgrade the capacity of the existing Bajera – Agra – Ferozabad pipeline at an investment of INR2 billion was also approved by the board.
GAIL had received the authorization for laying Jagdishpur – Haldia pipeline from MoP&NG in July, 2007.
The board approval for the three pipelines comes close on the heels of board approval of over INR75 billion for laying Dabhol – Bengaluru and Kochi – Kanjirkkod – Bengaluru – Mangalore pipelines in June earlier this year.
GAIL is already implementing the Chainsa – Jhajjhar – Hissar and Dadri – Bawana – Nangal pipelines and working on augmenting the capacities of Dahej – Vijaipur and Vijaipur – Dadri pipelines.
GAIL now owns and operates a network of over 7,100 km of Natural Gas high pressure trunk pipeline with a capacity to carry 155 MMSCMD of natural gas across the country. During the 11th plan period, GAIL would build 5000 km of pipelines at an estimated investment of INR280 billion. When these pipelines are commissioned, the capacity is expected to increase to around 300 MMSCMD.