Gujarat State Petronet Ltd has trounced the state owned gas utility GAIL India and a joint venture of Adani Group and Welspun to win rights for two cross country natural gas pipelines.

Official sources said that a GSPL led consortium beat GAIL to get rights to lay a 1,600 kilometer line from Mallavaram on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh to Bhilwara in Rajasthan.

The consortia, which also included Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum, beat Adani-Welspun combine to get rights of 740 kilometer Bhatinda—Jammu—Srinagar line.

Another source said that “The GSPL led consortium bid lowest tariff for the two pipelines.”

While bids for the Mallavaram—Bhilwara pipeline were opened by oil regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board on October 18th offers for Bhatinda—Jammu line were opened October 20th 2010,

Both the pipelines will cost INR 6,000 crore each.

GSPL, which currently has its gas grid network only within Gujarat, holds 52% interest in the consortia, IOC has 26% while HPCL and BPCL have 11% each.

Sources said the Mallavaram—Bhilwara pipeline, which will have a capacity to carry 42 million standard cubic metres of gas per day, is likely to transport gas from eastern offshore fields belonging to Reliance Industries and Gujarat State Petroleum Corp.

(Sourced from PTI)