AIL India Ltd announced its foray into the southern market with the signing of an MoU with Karnataka at the Global Investors Meet which kicked off in the city on Thursday. In the first phase of the project, a 996 km pipeline will be laid underground from Dabhol in Maharashtra to KPCL in Bidadi along with spurlines to Goa and Bengaluru. The pipeline will transport petroleum products — both liquids and gases from Dabhol to Bengaluru and involves an investment of Rs 4,544 crore. A large chunk of the 2,000 plus km of pipeline that will run through south India will run through Karnataka.
“We are proposing a 800 km long trunk pipeline in Karnataka and another 500 km of branch pipelines from Kochi to Mangalore with a branch to Bengaluru via Coimbatore which will transport 16 MMSCMD of gas,” said B.C. Tripathi, CMD of GAIL. He said, land acquisition, environmental clearance and other formalities had been facilitated speedily by the state and construction contracts will be awarded in July with construction beginning in earnest by October or November 2010. Phase I of the project is expected to be completed by March 2012 and phase II by December 2012. The project will also facilitate the setting up of gas based power projects for steel and fertilizer plants in the state.
While Mr Tripathi refused to comment on the cost of gas the company would provide, he said the project is expected to bring some relief to fertilizer and power plants as gas is more economical than liquid fuel that these plants currently run on. GAIL also plans to roll out city gas projects along the pipelines of major cities like Bengaluru to cater to the needs of households, commercial establishments, industries and transportation.
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