City gas distribution to be laid in Patna and Gaya

Patna, Aug 28: The city gas distribution network would be laid in Patna and Gaya initially for supply of natural gas for domestic as well industrial need from Energy highway project for Eastern India, Jagdishpur-Phulpur-Haldia natural gas pipeline.

For expeditious rolling out of the gas projects which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Ranchi last week, first meeting of the joint coordination group of Bihar government and Gas Authority of India Ltd (Gail) was held here yesterday.

Besides these two prominent towns, priority would be assigned to other major cities like Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur, a release from GAIL said. Approximately 620 km long Jagdishpur-Phulpur-Haldia gas pipeline to be built at an estimated investment of Rs 10,000 crore will serve as "Energy highway" to carry efficient and environment-friendly fuel to West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

The city gas distribution network would touch about 40 per cent of Bihar population. The pipeline will supply natural gas to household and transport sectors to several industries in the region including fertiliser, power, steel and other large, medium and small industries.

The joint coordination group meeting attended by Director (Marketing) GAIL Prabhat Singh and Naveen Verma, Principal Secretary, Industries department of Bihar agreed that the demand assessment of natural gas for laying CGD (City Gas Distribution) network shall be done in a time bound manner, the release said.

It was agreed that GAIL would organise an industry meet in Patna with participation from Industry Association and Bihar government for disseminating information about benefits of usage of natural gas. The Bihar government would also organise road shows outside the state and GAIL would support and participate in the such events.

PTI