Urja Ganga is an integrated pipeline project, spanning 3,400km to deliver natural gas to several eastern and north-eastern states of India
Image: The 3,400km Urja Ganga gas pipeline project will deliver natural gas to several eastern and north-eastern states of India. Photo: courtesy of outgunned21/Freeimages.com.
GAIL (India) has commissioned the 165km pipeline section of the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga gas pipeline project in Gorakhpur in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Section-I of the Urja Ganga gas pipeline completed
By bringing the Gorakhpur spur line section into service, GAIL said that it has wrapped up work on the entire 750km long trunk pipeline section-I of the Urja Ganga gas pipeline, which constitutes 30% of the initially approved project route.
GAIL said that its infrastructure at Gorakhpur is set to begin gas supplies to the city gas project and an upcoming fertilizer plant in the north Indian city.
The Urja Ganga gas pipeline project will span 3,400km covering the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and the north eastern states. It is an integrated project made up of the Jagdishpur-Haldia & Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL) and the Barauni – Guwahati Pipeline (BGPL) pipelines.
GAIL said that the 730km Barauni to Guwahati stretch of the gas pipeline project is further planned to feed the North Eastern Gas Grid project, called Indradhanush, which broke ground in February 2019.
GAIL (India) CMD B. C. Tripathi said: “The sequential commissioning of the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project amidst ground level challenges is very encouraging. GAIL is fulfilling its commitment of commissioning the acclaimed National project within scheduled timeframe.
“All pipeline procurement and laying contracts aggregating over Rs. 12,500 crore have been awarded, thereby contributing significantly to the Make in India initiatives of GoI.”
Originally, the gas pipeline project was planned to be laid through the eastern states. In January 2018, the Indian government announced that the pipeline project will be extended by another 750km up to Guwahati in the state of Assam and later on to all the state capitals of North East India.
The extension of the Urja Ganga gas pipeline project to Guwahati is estimated to see an additional investment of INR37-40bn (£430-460m), which takes the overall capex of the project to up to around INR169bn (£1.95bn).