The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved a viability gap funding/partial capital grant of ₹ 5,176 crore for GAIL (India) Ltd’s 2,539-km long Jagdishpur-Haldia and Bokaro-Dhamra (JHBDPL) natural gas pipeline.
The cost of the entire project is ₹ 12,940 crore, which means the capital grant is 40 per cent of the total cost of the project.
“The JHBDPL project will connect the eastern part of the country with the National Gas Grid. It will ensure the availability of clean and eco-friendly fuel to the industrial, commercial, domestic and transport sectors in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal,” an official statement said.
“This capital grant will encourage the supply of fuel and affordable tariffs to industries and will encourage industrial development in these states,” the statement added.
CGD networks
The CCEA also approved the simultaneous development of city gas distribution networks in Varanasi, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Cuttack and others en-route the JHBDPL pipeline project.
“These distribution networks will be developed by GAIL in collaboration with the concerned state governments,” the statement said.
“About 1.25 crore population living in these cities will be directly benefited by the establishment of these CGD networks. All these projects will generate direct as well as indirect employment for about 21,000 people and will boost the socio-economic development in the eastern part of the country,” the statement added.
Anchor customers
Anchor customers for the pipeline project will be the Gorakhpur, Barauni and Sindri fertiliser plants.
The Cabinet had already approved the revival of the three fertiliser units. These units will be revived jointly by Indian Oil Corporation, Coal India Ltd and NTPC Ltd at a total cost of around ₹ 20,000 crore.
Natural gas will be supplied to these plants under the Gas Pooling Scheme for urea at a pooled price. Pooling is deriving an average price for gas produced from all domestic sources as well as an element of imported natural gas.