The Hindu Business Line : Iran pipeline: Indian segment may cost $1 b

New Delhi, July 3 India would need to investment about $1 billion in laying the pipeline to transport Iranian gas expected to arrive via Pakistan to consumers in the country.

As the construction work of the pipeline would be segmented with each country responsible for the section of the pipeline passing through its own territory, the investment cost would depend on the stretch of the pipeline to be constructed within India.

The stretch required to be laid to connect the delivery point at Barmer (Rajasthan) to the national network is estimated to be about 700 km. Sources told Business Line that two options were being considered by India for transporting the gas – the first to connect the delivery point through a pipeline to Bhatinda in Punjab and the other to connect it to the network in Vijaipur, Madhya Pradesh. The gas would mainly be used for North India.

Plans afoot

“Plans are already afoot to link the northern part of the country to the main pipeline network,” sources said.

Iran hopes to start supplying gas to India and Pakistan by 2011 through a proposed $7-billion tri-nation pipeline connecting the countries.

The proposed pipeline will initially carry 60 million cubic metres (2.2 billion cubic feet) of gas daily to Pakistan and India, half for each country. Its capacity will be raised to 150 million cubic metres at a later date.

Pipeline construction would not be tough in India as the state-owned gas transportation company GAIL (India) Ltd has already planned out expansion and upgradation of its existing pipeline with an investment of about Rs 18,000 crore.

Capacity set to raise

When these pipelines are commissioned, the capacity is expected to increase from 140 MMSCMD at present to around 280 MMSCMD. India’s first major inland cross country Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur (HVJ) gas pipeline is over 2,800 km long and passes through Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi.

Meanwhile, Iran has said that it has already completed about 18 per cent of the work in its territory on building a pipeline that would carry natural gas from its prolific South Pars fields to India and Pakistan. The pipeline would travel nearly 1,000 km through the Iranian territory before it reaches the Pakistan border.

Pakistan yet to begin

Pakistan has said that it is yet to begin work on a 1,000-km stretch of the pipeline to link Iran with India.

The estimated cost of laying the pipeline from Iran point to India at current prices is expected to be $2.5-2.75 billion for Pakistan. Pakistan plans to build the pipeline on a public-private partnership basis.

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