GUWAHATI, July 20 - Taking a step towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi�s ambitious Urja Ganga Gas Pipeline Project, a joint venture (JV) agreement was signed today among the five petroleum and natural gas PSUs � IOCL, ONGC, GAIL, OIL and NRL � at the NRL Corporate Office here for implementing the North East Natural Gas Pipeline Grid Project.
The business of the JV company will be to develop, build, operate and maintain the Natural Gas Pipeline Grid connecting Guwahati to the major North Eastern cities and major load centres like Numaligarh Refinery, etc., including integrating it with gas producing fields, wherever feasible, in North East India. The estimated length of the proposed North East Natural Gas Pipeline Grid is around 1,500 km and is expected to cost Rs 6,000 crore. The tentative time schedule for commissioning the North East Pipeline Grid is four years, which includes one year of pre-project activities.
The JV company will have equal equity contribution from all the partners for development of the Natural Gas Pipeline Project.
The Gas Grid Project will connect the State capitals of all the eight North Eastern States namely, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. The Gas Grid Project will connect all NE States to the National Gas Grid through the Barauni-Guwahati Gas Pipeline being laid by GAIL. From Guwahati, the pipeline will extend to Numaligarh, Dimapur, Kohima and Imphal in one direction; Shillong, Silchar, Aizawl and Agartala in the second direction and to Itanagar in the third direction. Gangtok will be connected from Siliguri from the gas pipeline of GAIL coming from Barauni to Guwahati.
The JV agreement was signed by HK Singh, ED (Project) of the IOCL, R Kaul, GM-Chief-BD and JV of ONGC, DM Rao, CGM (PD) of GAIL, BK Mishra, CGM (PL) of OIL and AK Bhattacharya, Sr CGM (Corporate Affairs) of NRL in the presence of other senior executive of these companies.
