Dahej-Dabhol pipeline to be completed by next month: Deshmukh

Warora, Chandrapur, May 12 (UNI) The pipeline supplying Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to the plant from Dahej in Gujarat is expected to be completed by the middle of next month.

This will be a major step towards the revival of the Dabhol power project in Maharashtra which has been lying idle for several years.

Speaking to newspersons here today, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said the pipeline from the LNG terminal at Dahej to Dabhol power plant of Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Ltd (RGPPL), would be completed by June 17 as work on only a small stretch was remaining.

After the pipeline was completed, the plant would start generating another 700 MW of power by the end of June 2007, taking the total generation to 1,400 MW, he said.

Presently, Dabhol is generating 700 MW of power on naphtha, he added. The generation would be further increased by 700 MW, bringing the total to 2,100 MW by December this year, when more LNG will be available, the Chief Minister said.

All the issues over the pipeline had been sorted out, he added.

A problem had cropped in Gujarat for a stretch of about 15 km of pipeline over land acquisition, compensation and other issues.

Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) is laying 30-inch diameter, 576-km long Dahej-Panvel-Dabhol pipeline at an estimated investment of Rs 3,200 crore. The pipeline will carry LNG from the terminal of Petronet LNG Limited at Dahej to Dabhol. On completion, the pipeline will supply LNG to the Dabhol power plant and thus help in its revival.

Mr Deshmukh was in Warora for the foundation stone laying ceremony of a 540 MW thermal power plant being set up by the Hyderabad-based K S K Energy Ventures Ltd.

UNI