no pipe dream

New Delhi, Feb. 8 (PTI): Gail India Ltd, the state-run gas transmission firm, is planning to expand its HBJ pipeline network by 2005.

“We are progressing with pre-project activities to further expand the HBJ pipeline at an estimated cost of Rs 700 crore,” a senior company official said.

The expansion consists of a 139-km pipeline to be laid from the HBJ at Thulendi to Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh. This project, which is being undertaken to increase gas supply to existing customers and to target new customers in Uttar Pradesh, such as IFFCO Phulphur, is budgeted at Rs 350 crore and will become operational by April 2005.

Besides, a 114-km pipeline from the HBJ at Dadri to Panipat in Haryana is being built to service the IOC’s Panipat refinery and other new customers in Haryana. The second extension is budgeted at Rs 350 crore and will be completed by April 2005, he said.

The HBJ pipeline is a 2,800-km conduit that runs from Hazira on the western coast of India through Bijaipur to Jagdishpur in north India and includes links to Delhi. It forms the backbone of natural gas transmission system in the country.

In July 1998, Gail had invested Rs 2,380 crore to upgrade the pipeline. The upgradation, which included laying of 505 km of additional pipeline, expanded the capacity of the HBJ pipeline by 83.5 per cent from 18.2 million cubic metres of gas per day to 33.4 million cubic metres of gas per day.

The company is also in the process of constructing a 47-km pipeline network in south Gujarat for supplying regassified LNG to its existing consumers in that area from tap-off points on the Dahej-Bijaipur pipeline at Ankot, Samni and Vaghodia. The construction of this line is likely to be completed by April 2004, the official said.

Gail is constructing the 60-km Chainsa-Gurgaon pipeline, which links an existing pipeline from Delhi to Gurgaon at Gurgaon to the HBJ pipeline at Chainsa.

“The project is being implemented to increase the reliability of gas supply in the national capital territory for city gas distribution as well as to supply gas to new and existing consumers in and around Faridabad and Gurgaon and is expected to be completed by March 2004,” he said.