GAIL gets board nod for Dabhol-Bangalore pipeline project

Bangalore: The board of directors of GAIL (India) Ltd has given in-principle approval for laying of the 730 km Dabhol-Bangalore gas pipeline. At its board and strategy review meeting held in Bangalore on Tuesday, the company management gave the go ahead for further time-bound action and finalisation of the project execution plans.

Depending on the source and customer tie-up, the pipeline will be designed to carry 16 MMSCD (million standard cubic metres per day) of gas and will need an investment of Rs 2,500 crore. The project will be appraised/ updated in respect of investment, customer identification, routing of the pipeline and freezing the design parameters before final investment approval by the GAIL board, said an official release.

The route of the proposed pipeline is from R-LNG Terminal of Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Ltd (RGPPL) at Dabhol in Maharashtra up to Bangalore. The pipeline will pass through Ratnagiri and Kolhapur districts of Maharashtra; and Belgaum, Dharwad, Haveri, Davangere, Chitradurga, Tumkur and Bangalore districts of Karnataka. With this pipeline, natural gas from RGPPL’s R-LNG Terminal can be supplied to industrial clusters in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Other pipelines

The Dabhol-Bangalore pipeline is among the five new pipelines for which GAIL has already received authorisation in the first quarter of 2007. The other pipelines for which approval has been granted are: Dadri – Bawana – Nangal pipeline; Chainsa – Gurgaon – Jhajjhar – Hissar pipeline; Jagdishpur – Haldia pipeline, and Kochi – Kanjirkkod - Bangalore / Mangalore pipeline.

GAIL will also be laying three pipelines to augment the capacities of Dahej – Vijaipur pipeline, Vijaipur – Dadri pipeline, Vijaipur – Auraiya – Jagdishpur pipeline with a carrying capacity of 74 MMSCMD. The total length of the new pipelines will be around 5,500 km and the estimated investment on these would be Rs 20,000 crore. When all these pipelines are commissioned by 2011-12, the total length of GAIL’s pipelines would be over 12,000 km and the capacity is expected to increase from 148 MMSCMD at present to around 300 MMSCMD.