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GAIL to lay twin cross-country pipelines
By A Business Correspondent
GAIL is studying a proposal for laying two cross-country pipeline routes covering 3,600 km that will carry fuel from the gas fields of Bangladeshi to north and south India. The Union government has already selected IOC as the lead partner in the consortium comprising GAIL and ONGC for importing natural gas from Bangladesh and offshore blocks in the Bay of Bengal.
The first pipeline would start from the Indo-Bangladesh border at Krishnanagar in West Bengal and traverse Khorda in Orissa before touching Chennai. The other pipeline route would commence from Krishnanagar and travel through Ranchi in Jharkhand and Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh, where it will join GAIL's HBJ pipeline network.
The company is in the initial process of appointing an agency to undertake the survey works for the pipeline. The scope of work includes carrying out detailed route survey of the cross-country trunk gas pipelines, including soil analysis, hydrological, population density and cadastral survey.
The future of this project, however, depends on whether the Bangladesh government agrees to the US-based Unocal Corporation's proposal to export gas to India. The government and even the courts are resisting all attempts to export gas without first providing for the country at least for the next 30 years.
For more details please refer to Projectmonitor Prinit Version.
(1/5/02)
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