GAIL to award pipeline expansion by May

New Delhi, Apr 4: GAIL (India) Ltd, country's largest gas transmission and marketing company, today said the first phase of the Rs 20,000 crore pipeline expansion programme will be awarded by mid-May this year.

The Board of Directors of the state-owned firm had already approved the first phase of the 5,005 km pipeline expansion and the tenders for this have been received. ''We are evaluating the tenders received and will award the first phase of the total 5,005 km pipeline expansion by mid-May this year,'' GAIL CMD U D Choubey told reporters here on the sidelines of a conference here.

Dr Choubey said the first phase of the expansion, which is about 2,000 km (Dadri-Bawana-Nangal pipeline), will be completed by 2009-10.

The company had earlier announced its ambitious expansion plan of expanding the pipeline infrastructure to 12,000 km, which will cost about Rs 20,000 crore by 2011-12.

The proposed pipelines are Dadri-Bawana-Nangal pipeline, Chainsa-Gurgaon-Jhajjar-Hissar, Jagdishpur-Haldia, Dabhol-Bangalore, and Kochi-Kanjirkkod-Bangalore/Mangalore pipeline.

UNI