GAIL''s new pipeline inaugurated
By Our Corporate Bureau | 13 Jul 2005
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.
