H-Energy to start Rs 3,700-cr Bengal LNG project by July

Kolkata: Hiranandani Group-promoted H-Energy which is implementing a Rs 3,700-crore LNG project in West Bengal will start work by June-July this year, a top company official said Wednesday.

"We will begin construction of the gas terminal at Kukrahati estimated at Rs 1,500 crore in June-July this year and will require 18 months to complete," H-Energy, MD and CEO, Darshan Hiranandani said at FICCI organised meet here.

He said the legal hurdles in constructing the pipeline are over and the company can start work for the project anytime now. H-Energy will build a 150-km pipeline from Kukrahati (Haldia to Bangladesh border). H-Energy currently has a 2 million tonne per annum long term supply contract with Bangladesh. Supply to Bangladesh too will begin at 0.5 million tonne per annum in the first year and will be scaled up to 2 million tonne. A small under water pipeline to Falta will serve as a gate station for supply to Kolkata.

The first phase of the project includes setting up of a terminal at Kukrahati in the Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal over a 47 acre plot. The pipeline to Bangladesh will cost Rs 2,200 crore pipeline from Haldia.

"We have decided a model that will transload LNG at Paradip and from there it will transported via smaller vessels to the re-gasification terminal at Haldia for faster execution," Hiranandani said.

The terminal will have an initial capacity of 3 million tone per annum and can be ramped up depending on demand to 5 million tonne per annum.

Meanwhile, commercial operations of its project at Jaigarh (in Maharashtra) is expected to start operation by mid this year, he said. The terminal is a floating storage and regasification unit and is built at a cost of Rs 1,665 crore.