The Himachal Pradesh department of industries  has mooted the extension of GAIL's proposed Dadri-Bawana-Nangal natural gas pipeline upto Himachal Pradesh for the benefit of the state's industrial, transport and domestic sector consumers.

It has signed an agreement with Gail to jointly study the demand potential of natural gas and allied products in the state and work out the feasibility of extending the proposed Dadri-Bawana-Nangal natural gas pipeline upto Himachal Pradesh.

Under the co-operation agreement, GAIL will use its technical and commercial expertise to study the various options and collate the gas demand potential of the state of Himachal Pradesh. GAIL has already conducted a sample survey of some of industrial areas in Himachal Pradesh.

The department of industries will act as the nodal agency for facilitating information pertaining to fertilizer, power, industrial, domestic and transport sectors in the state, which could become consumers of gas and CNG as fuel or feedstock.

The department has taken it upon itself to coordinate the statutory approvals for developing the gas infrastructure in the state to fast-track the project.

After the completion of an assessment on the demand potential and alignment of the pipeline, GAIL will begin workin in two years on the 65-kilometre pipeline extension, which will require an investment of nearly Rs3,000 crore, for which GAIL says it has requsite fund through earlier mobilisation.

According to U DChoubey, chairman and managing director, GAIL, the availability of natural gas to Himachal would enable the state to meet the additional energy demand of the industry, by extending the gas pipeline from Rajpura in Punjab to the Baddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarh industrial areas to cut down vehicular pollution by switching over to CNG-based transport.

Domestic consumers will also provided natural gas through a pipeline. According to GAIL, the gas pipeline will bring "clean and environment-friendly fuel" to the consumers in the region and herald the use of a more efficient energy resource, which will increase the competitive edge of the industries using natural gas.

The indsutries department will also identify industrial clusters for distribution of natural gas as fuel and to determine modus operandi for setting up of joint ventures by GAIL in Himachal Pradesh.

In the last fortnight GAIL has signed an MOU with Indian Oil to explore the possibility of setting up of cracker complex including downstream derivatives at Barauni in Bihar.

GAIL registered a 35 per cent increase in turnover (net of excise duty) of Rs6129 crore in the second quarter of financial year 2008-09, over the turnover in the corresponding period last year. Net profit increased by 79 per cent to Rs1023 crore as against Rs573 crore in the corresponding period previous year. The gross margin increased by 57 per cent to Rs1660 crore as against Rs1059 crore in the corresponding period last year. The profit before tax increased by 69 per cent to Rs1503 crore as against Rs890 crore in the corresponding period last year.

During the second quarter of the current financial year, revenues from natural gas transmission business increased by nine percent to Rs621 crore, Petrochemicals business revenue decreased by two percent to Rs629 and LPG and Liquid Hydrocarbons business revenue increased by 55 per cent to Rs1090 crore. The revenues from natural gas trading during the second quarter of the current financial year increased by 40 per cent to Rs4495 crore and LPG transmission revenue increased by 1 per cent to Rs91 crore.

The improved results is despite sharing the higher LPG subsidy by Rs141 crore (provisional) for the quarter ended on 30 September 2008.