GAIL to award 1st phase of Rs 20k pipeline expansion by May

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

The Board of Directors of the state-owned firm has already approved the first phase of the 5,005 km pipeline expansion project and the tenders for this have been received.

''We are evaluating the tenders received and will award the first phase of the pipeline expansion project 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, which covers about 2,000 km (Dadri-Bawana-Nangal pipeline), will be completed by 2009-10 and will cost the company Rs 14,500 crore.

GAIL had earlier announced its ambitious expansion plan of expanding the pipeline infrastructure to 12,000 km 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.

GAIL owns and operates 6,700 km of natural gas transmission network, which is over 82 per cent of the total pipeline infrastructure in the country.

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