Coming soon: 5 GAIL pipelines
GAIL is aiming to commission five important gas pipelines this fiscal (2024-25).
Three are in east India, one in southern India and one in central India. Among them are two Urja Ganga project pipelines: the 294-km Durgapur to Haldia and the 253-km Dhamra to Haldia pipelines.
Also to be completed are the 1755-km pipeline from Mumbai in Maharashtra on the west coast to Jharsuguda in Odisha in eastern India, the 744-km pipeline from Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh to Angul in Odisha and a 322-km stretch of the Phase-II pipeline connecting the Kochi LNG terminal to Koottanad in Kerala and Bangalore and Mangalore. In early April 2024, GAIL submitted a detailed update on the pipeline projects to the oil ministry.
By next month (June 2024), it expects to complete the Mumbai to Nagpur section of the Mumbai to Jharsuguda pipeline. "Pipeline laying is going on at pace," says a source.
GAIL expects to commission the entire pipeline by October 2024. Similarly, GAIL expects to complete the main 420-km trunk pipeline of the Srikakulam to Angul pipeline by June 2024.
"We'll also complete 324-km of spur lines by September 2024," we hear. "We have targetted November 2024 to complete the Kochi Phase-II pipeline."
The Durgapur to Haldia and Dhamra to Haldia pipelines will be completed in June 2024. "We have completed the Odisha stretch of the Dhamra to Haldia pipeline and are working on the West Bengal stretch," we are told.
But a rival pipeline company comments that all five pipelines have been delayed several years, and it's about time they're completed. Separately, GAIL's board approved the laying of a 360-km C2-C3 (ethylene/propylene) liquid pipeline from its Vijaipur petrochemicals complex in Madhya Pradesh to its Pata petchem plant on May 16 (2024).
Estimated to cost Rs1792cr ($216m), the pipeline has a 32-month completion timeframe.