By IANS,
Shimla : India’s largest natural gas distributor GAIL (India) Ltd Tuesday inked a pact with the Himachal Pradesh government to link the hill state with the national gas grid.
This would go a long way in meeting the demands of industrial, agricultural, transport and domestic sectors in the state.
Chairman and Managing Director of GAIL U.D. Choubey told reporters here that GAIL was setting up gas pipeline networks from Uttar Pradesh to Haryana to Punjab and finally to Himachal Pradesh.
The 610-km long Dadri-Bawana-Nangal pipeline will pass through Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab and the estimated investment to create the facility will be Rs.25 billion.
“The 65-km long pipeline from Rajpura town in Punjab to Baddi in Himachal Pradesh will be completed by 2010-11 with an outlay of Rs.3 billion,” Choubey said.
“Of course, this will benefit gas-based industries located in the industrial belt of the hill state comprising Baddi, Barotiwala, Nalagarh and Parwanoo in Solan district,” he added.
This year alone, the state government gave clearance to 64 medium and large-scale units with an investment of Rs.71 billion in this industrial belt, with a power requirement of 350 MW daily.
Choubey said the pipeline up to Nangal town in Punjab would be completed in another two years.
The state government will jointly explore with GAIL the areas of cooperation for mutual benefit and assess the demand potential to develop the network for supply and distribution of natural gas.
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said the state had also requested the central government to extend the pipeline to districts that are located near Punjab and Haryana.
Apart from investing in the gas grid sector, GAIL also has plans to invest in the petrochemical and telecom sectors.
GAIL has a transmission capacity of around 148 million metric standard cubic meter per day (MMSCMD) and the current transmission capacity utilisation is about 55 percent which is around 88 MMSCMD.