GAIL''s new pipeline inaugurated

Mani Shankar Aiyar, union minister for petroleum and natural gas and panchayati raj today inaugurated the GAIL pipeline connecting the Narimanam zone and the Kuthalam zone in Tamil Nadu. Proshanto Banerjee, chairman and managing director, GAIL, S P Rao, director (projects), Dr U D Choubey, director (marketing) were among those present at the inauguration.

This 48km, 12" pipeline will help meet the fuel requirements of consumers in the Kuthalam area. The pipeline construction has been completed by GAIL within 10 months from the project approval within the approved project cost of Rs46.91 crore.

GAIL supplies natural gas to various power plants in Kuthalam including Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (0.45 MMSCMD), Abban Power (0.6 MMSCMD) and OPG Power (0.08 MMSCMD). The interconnection will benefit these power plants with the additional supply of 0.30 MMSCMD of natural gas from Narimanam field which will now supplement the depleting supplies of the Kuthalam field.

The project, for which the foundation stone was laid by Aiyar, in June 2004, was taken up on priority and completed without time or cost overrun. The project had 35 crossings including five major river and canal crossings. Three 'horizontal directional drilling (HDD) machines, 28 excavators, eight site booms, 12 cranes and 40 were engaged round the clock to complete the project.

In 1992, before GAIL took over the gas marketing in the region, the gas supply was around 30,000 SCMD to only six consumers. Today, GAIL supplies 1.9 MMSCMD of gas to around 50 consumers in all the five zones of the Cauvery basin. The length of pipeline has also been increased from 14 km in 1992 to 190 km as of date.