GAIL to make Rs 5,000 cr investment for construction of natural gas & CNG pipelines

Kolkata: GAIL (India) Limited, the largest state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company, is all set to make a fresh investment of Rs 5,000 crore for the construction of pipelines to supply gas and CNG in Bengal in the next 5-6 years. The project is being executed as a part of Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Pipeline Project. A 555 km long pipeline will pass through eight districts in the state, such as Purulia, Bankura, Burdwan, Nadia, Hooghly, Howrah, East Midnapore and North 24-Parganas.

S Bairagi, CGM (Marketing), GAIL, was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an interactive session on 'Gas Industry in West Bengal', organised by FICCI at a city hotel on Wednesday. The project is expected to be completed up to Durgapur within July 2019, while it would be done up to Kolkata within July 2020. Gas pipeline will then go up to Haldia in East Midnapore.

The projects will be done in various phases. Further project activities for execution of pipeline in Bengal up to Haldia and city gas distribution in Kolkata are also expected to commence shortly. The project will usher industrial development in the eastern part of the country by supplying environmentally clean natural gas to fertiliser and power plants, refineries, steel plants and other industries.

Bengal has significant natural gas reserves, which will boost the state's economy and provide scope for huge employment generation in the future years, if explored commercially. State Finance and Industry minister Amit Mitra, who attended the programme, said that the city gas network and GAIL's joint venture project will create more employment in the state.

This will create huge employment in producing sector, consuming sector and infrastructure sector, which is the intermediation between producers and consumers.