100 Km Dabhol pipeline starts from Dahej to Surat

New Delhi, May 7 (UNI) In a major step to kickstart the Dabhol power project lying idle for several years, the first stretch of the 100 Km long Dabhol pipeline from Dahej to Surat was commissioned today that would supply natural gas to the power plant.

The formal signal was given by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora.

His deputy Dinsha Patel, CMD GAIL Dr U D Choubey, D N Narsimharaju, Joint Secretary Petroleum Ministry, Santosh Kumar, Director (Projects), GAIL and other senior officials were also present on the occasion.

Mr Deora along with other dignitaries also inspected the pipeline laying work at Surat which had faced some difficulties. Close on the heels of the gas-in into the first stretch of the Dabhol-Panvel-Dabhol pipeline, decks have been cleared for the resumption of the work on a 12 km stretch of the pipeline in Chourasiya Taluka in Surat district with the active support from the Gujarat Government and the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

GAIL is laying 30 inch diameter, 576 km long Dahej-Panvel-Dabhol pipeline at an estimated investment of Rs 3,200 crore. The pipeline has a design capacity of 12 MMSCMD and will carry R-LNG from Petronet LNG Limited's LNG terminal at Dahej to Dabhol.

The pipeline on completion, will supply natural gas to the Dabhol Power plant of Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Limited (RGPPL), and thus help in revival of the power plant.

Being a project of national importance for revival of Dabhol power plant, the project is being monitored regularly by Empowered Group of Ministers and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to ensure expeditious completion of this project.

The inter-state gas pipeline would link the two important gas markets of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Currently, the gas market in Gujarat has access to five different gas supply sources including the South Bassein fields, Panna-Mukta Tapti Field, Lakshmi fields, Dahej RLNG and Shell RLNG.

On the other hand, the Maharashtra market has access to gas supplies from only the Bombay High Fields, which is fast declining.

Once the DUPL project is commissioned, the Gujarat and Maharashtra markets shall be interconnected. The pipeline will also enable supply of natural gas to various cities and towns and industries in areas falling enroute to the pipeline such as Vapi, Valsad, Navsari etc.

The project is being executed in five spreads with the deployment of heavy construction equipment. Approximately 222 km long stretch of the pipeline is covered in Gujarat state and the remaining 354 km long stretch of the trunk line passes through Maharashtra. At Dahej terminal, the gas will have throughput of 92 kg per sq centimeter pressure for gas to reach Dabhol. The pipeline traverses through 33 river crossings including one km wide stretches on Narmada and Tapi rivers.

The project also involved 16 crossings by Horizontal Direction Drilling (HDD) method. The project execution team also had to overcome 310 km of rocky and steep hilly terrain. An amount of approximately Rs 100 crore has been disbursed to the farmers of the land as compensation.

The construction activities commenced in May 2006, which faced intervening monsoon and RoU related issues.

The commissioning activity of the first stretch started from April 17, 2007. The entire project is expected to be completed by the end of May 2007 within the approved cost of Rs 3,200 crore and the gas supply to the Dabhol Power Plant is expected by June end.

UNI