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GAIL (India) Ltd is giving compensation to land owners, which is equal to 10 per cent of the prevalent market value of the land, Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum & Natural Gas, informed the Lok Sabha on Monday.
In a reply to a question, Pradhan said that GAIL has been acquiring the ‘Right of Use’ of land under the Petroleum & Mineral Pipeline Act under which the ownership of land does not change. Land is restored back to the original condition and returned to the respective owners.
Compensation package
Under the compensation package, GAIL also provides for compensation for the damaged crop during construction, for trees felled during construction and for miscellaneous/incidental damages.
In reply to a separate question, Pradhan said there is almost 15,000 km of natural gas pipeline infrastructure and an additional 15,000 km of pipeline is being undertaken.
“Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board and Government of India has authorised entities for laying of about 11,900 km and 1,175 km of pipeline is pending for award due to pending court cases,” Pradhan said.
“Further, in order to complete the national gas grid, the Ministry has identified three pipeline sections having a total length of about 2,500 km for development through the public-private-partnership mode with a Viability Gap Funding scheme of the Ministry of Finance through the Indian Infrastructure Project Development Fund,” he added.
Natural gas demand
To a question on natural gas demand in the country, Pradhan said that the actual gas demand is price sensitive and the total consumption in 2014-15 was 116.78 mscmd (million standard cubic meters a day). Of this, 73.93 mscmd was from domestic sources, while 42.85 mscmd was imported.
The Minister said that due to less demand for imported natural gas, 19.25 mscmd of regassification capacity remained unutilised. India has 62.10 mscmd of regassification capacity for the natural gas imported in liquid form known as liquefied natural gas (LNG).
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