State-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd today said the first phase of the 2,655-km gas pipeline from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal and Odisha will be completed before the scheduled target of December 2018.
The company said it has placed pipe-laying order for 530 km between Bokaro in Jharkhand and Angul in Odisha, worth Rs 780 crore. "With these awards, major contracts of the project, i.e. pipe supply and laying contract orders for 2,200 kms have been finalised," it said in a press statement.
The prestigious 2,655 km long Jagdishpur-Haldia & Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL) project, also known as the 'Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga' project, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July 2015.
"The project is progressing in full swing and first phase of the project will be completed before the scheduled target date of December 2018," it said. "GAIL till date has committed over Rs 7,400 crore for the project which will pass through the state of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha."
The project will usher in industrial development in eastern part of India by supplying environmentally clean natural gas to fertilizer and power plant, refineries, steel plants and other industries.
It will also provide clean energy to households and transportation in the cities enroute the pipeline. The city gas network laying activity in Varanasi, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack has already commenced. Project activities will start on ground in other cities namely Patna, Ranchi and Jamshedpur by next month, GAIL said.
GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B C Tripathi said the project activities are progressing as per schedule and major contracts for the project have been awarded.
"The schedule completion date for PhaseI of the project from Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh to Dobhi, Patna and Baruani in Bihar is December 2018 and we are confident of completing it ahead of schedule," he said. "City gas project Activities are also progressing well. The project will create a boon for clean industrial development in the eastern part of the country."
GAIL, he said, has achieved its annual targeted total capital outlay and has expended around Rs 4000 crore during the fiscal year ending March 2018.
The company will be spending its targeted capital outlay of Rs 6,400 crore in the current fiscal largely for the 4,000 km of pipeline and city gas projects it is presently executing, he added.
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