GAIL eying 45,000 crore turnover by 2011

Kolkata, Jun 21(UNI) With seven new pipelines in the offing to be laid, Gas Authority of India Limited(GAIL) has set a revenue target of Rs. 45,000 crore by 2011 from the present Rs.16,000 crore.

"We have a revenue target of Rs.45,000 crore to be achieved by 2011 that we expect to come primarily from gas transmission following laying of seven new pipelines. While Rs.3,000 crore is expected to be churned out of pipeline laying, the rest is to come from new gas find and different tie-ups," Chairman and Managing Director U D Choubey today said.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr.Choubey said the seven new pipelines, involving an expenditure of a total of Rs.18,000 crore would increase GAIL's network to 11,500 km from the present 6,700 km doubling the carrying capacity to more than 280 square cubic metres a day.

To be executed in the first phase by 2009 Government approval had been received for four pipelines--the 610-km Dadri-Bawana-Nangal pipeline passing through UP, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab, the 310 km Chainsa-Gurgaon-Jhajjhar-HIssar pipeline through Haryana and Rajasthan, the 876-km Jagdishpur-Haldia pipline through West Begngal, Jharkhand, Bihar and UP and the 730 km Dabhol-Bangalore pipeline through Haryana and Rajasthan.

Plans were afoot for augmenting the capacities of three existing piplines--the Dahej-Vijaipur pipline, the Vijaipur-Dadri pipline and the Vijaipur-Auraiya-Jagdishpur pipeline in the second phase by 2011, Dr. Choubey said.

To ensure gas availability, GAIL had already signed Memoranda of Understanding with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and ONGC for transportation of natural gas from various gas sources.

It also struck an agreement with Shell India for sharing of GAIL's pipline interconnectivity with Hazira terminal for gas supplies in the country. The two companies initiated a broad framework of agreement for cooperation which would help evacuation of regasified LNG from Shell's Hazria terminal for supplies to GAIL's customers.

GAIL and ONGC signed a gas supply agreement for gas supplies from ONGC oil and gas fields for a period of 15 years.

In reply to a question on the city gas projects, Dr. Choubey said GAIL was expecting to supply piped gas to Kolkata, Asansol and Durgapur in West Bengal largely for domestic use by 2011. The company, having signed an agreement with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)for the purpose would initially supply CBM(coal based methene) gas before providing natural gas.

"It is expected to be made available by the time Jagdishpur-Halida pipeline starts working by 2011. The project for supplying piped gas to the kitchen involves an estimated expenditure of Rs.500 crore," the CMD said.

Observing that the next decade would belong to the city gas, Dr.

Choubey said GAIL had formed altogether eight joint venture companies for this purpose for supplying cooking as in Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Lucknow, Agra, Kanpur, Tripura, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

UNI