The Hindu Business Line : Surat-Vapi gas pipeline commissioned

Ahmedabad May 31 With Chief Minister Mr Narendra Modi inaugurating extension of the gas grid to the industrial hub of South Gujarat in the Surat-Vapi region today, the State has moved closer to its 2010 goal of a gas-based industrial growth and economy.

Gujarat State Petronet Ltd (GSPL) today commissioned its 30-inch, 128-km Surat-Vapi pipeline to provide transmission services to major markets in Gujarat from various supply sources.

These include GSPC's Niko fields in Hazira, the Panna-Mukta-Tapti joint venture fields at Bombay High, Shell's LNG Terminal at Hazira, Cairn's field at Suvali and the PLL-LNG Terminal at Dahej.

GSPL's gas receiving station and GSPC's gas CNG station were both inaugurated at Vapi today.

GSPL was formed in 1998 to transport environment-friendly natural gas to meet the fuel requirement of the State's industries through high-pressure pipeline network from supply points to numerous demand centres.

It has planned to lay nearly 2,200 km of pipelines under the gas grid project.

Currently, GSPL has a pipeline network of 1,200 km and supplies gas to 26 customers in industrial cities.

In addition, it is constructing a 30-inch, 1100-km Rajkot-Jamnagar pipeline, along with the 24-inch, 250-km Dharod-Pipavav, 2500-km Morbi-Mundra and 120-km Mehsana-Palanpur pipelines.

These are all part of the Vision 2010 statement of the State Government to lay a pipeline for the entire State and make it the petro capital of the country.

The region comprising Vapi and Valsad has emerged as the industrial hub of South Gujarat, with more than 3,000 manufacturing units having been set up in the past three decades.

These units are mainly in the segments of chemicals and dyes, paints, paper, pharmaceuticals, textiles, glass and plastic.

About 70 per cent of the industries in Vapi are in the field of chemicals and related products such as dyes, dyes intermediaries, pigments and pesticides.

The region is also emerging as a textile hub with major industrial units such as GHCL planning to set up units in Vapi in addition to the existing Raymonds, Welspun and Alok Industries.

These industries currently use a number of alternative fuels such as LPG, HSD, LDO, coal, and lignite, whose high costs make the end-product non-competitive in the international market with respect to price.

The use of natural gas will substantially reduce the cost of the final product and thus benefit these industries by making them globally competitive.

The estimated demand of natural gas for industries in the Vapi region is two million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd); an additional 0.15 mmscmd is estimated to be consumed by the domestic and transportation sectors.

Mr Modi also inaugurated a Mother CNG Station at Vapi to provide the pollution-free fuel to vehicles.

This will enable setting up of daughter CNG Stations in adjoining areas.

Moreover, gas would also be made available to households for domestic purposes.

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