Union Cabinet approves North East gas pipeline grid project

A CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the North East gas grid project to develop gas pipeline grid in the eight States of the region.

The grid will cover a total pipeline length of 1656 KM and with a tentative project cost of Rs 9265 crore. The decision was taken in the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Officials said, the North East Gas Grid project of Indradhanush Gas Grid Limited with viability Gap Funding/ Capital Grant at 60 percent of the estimated cost of Rs 9265 crore (Including interest during construction). Quantum of VGF would be capped at 60 per cent of estimated project cost and would not be linked with upward capital cost variation.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) shall identify milestones for major activities for this project and link the same for releases of capital grant of the project.

An official said that for effective monitoring of the project implementation, a Committee comprising officials from the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Development of North East Region, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, and Department of Fertilizers, may be formed, which would periodically review the progress in implementation of the project and take steps to smoothen out any issues in execution.

“The Capital Grant will provide natural gas supplies to various types of consumers including Industrial, PNG (Domestic), CNG (Transport) etc. It would immensely help in substituting the liquid fuels. The pipeline grid would ensure reliability and uninterrupted natural gas supplies to the consumers which otherwise gets severely affected due to various reasons in this part of the country,” the official said.

Availability of natural gas across the region is expected to boost industrial growth without impacting the environment and would offer better quality of life to the people in general due to use of cleaner and green fuel.

“This will also lead to the development of industrial climate in the eight States of the north-eastern region i.e. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura,” said the official, adding “reduction in the usage of kerosene, wood etc. due to increased usage of environment friendly fuel natural gas thereby improving the environment in the region.”

It will also boost exploration and production activities and connect regional gas sources with pipeline network for early monetisation of natural resources in the region, official said.

The possibility of installing bottling plants for LPG can be explored for reducing transportation cost. Uninterrupted supply of LPG and other value added products can be ensured in the region which will bring energy security to the people in the area.

Indradhanush Gas Grid Limited (IGGL), a joint venture company of five CPSEs (IOCL, ONGC, GAIL, OIL and NRL) has been incorporated in 2018 to develop and operate Natural gas pipeline grid in North-East region.

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