ET reported that state owned gas utility GAIL India today won rights to lay a 1,550 kilometer natural gas pipeline from Surat in Gujarat to Paradip in Orissa, connecting west to east coast, the first pipeline in the country originating and terminating at a port.

GAIL beat Gujarat State Petronet Ltd to win the right to lay the pipeline when oil regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board opened bids.

GAIL bid an astonishingly low pipeline tariff of INR 0.01 (one paisa) per million British thermal unit to bag the project.

The aggressive bidding by GAIL followed the state owned firm losing bid for the previous three major pipelines to GSPL
Mehsana-Bhatinda
Mallavaram-Bhopal-Bhilwara
Panipat-Jammu-Srinagar

The bi directional pipeline would have a capacity to transport up to 60 million standard cubic meters per day of gas. The 36 inch pipeline would cost INR 5,500 crore.

The pipeline is to originate from Mora in Gujarat which is a major node/terminal of GSPL gas grid pipeline network. The pipeline was to end at the Indian Oil Corp's under-construction 15 million tonnes refinery at Paradip. The pipeline is to pass through Jalgaon, Nagpur, Raipur and Bhubaneswar.

(Sourced from ET)