JV Formed for Northeast India Gas Pipe

Five state-owned companies have signed a joint venture agreement to execute a natural gas pipeline project in the north-eastern part of India.

The agreement was signed by Indian Oil Corporation, ONGC, Gail, Oil India and Numaligarh Refinery (NRL) in Guwahati, the capital of the biggest north-eastern state of Assam, NRL said July 20. The joint venture company will have equal equity contribution from all the partners. The North-East Natural Gas Pipeline Grid Project is part of Urja Ganga Gas Pipeline Project. 

“The business of the JV company shall be to develop, build, operate and maintain the natural gas pipeline grid connecting Guwahati to the major north-eastern cities and major load centers like Numaligarh Refinery, including integrating it with gas producing fields, wherever feasible, in north east India,” NRL said. The length of the proposed pipeline is around 1,500 km having an estimated project cost of rupees 60bn ($870mn). The pipeline is expected to be operational in four years.

The pipeline will connect the state capitals of all the eight north eastern states: Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. It will connect all the eight states to the national gas grid through Barauni-Guwahati Gas Pipeline being laid by Gail. From Guwahati, the pipeline will extend to Numaligarh, Dimapur, Kohima and Imphal in one direction; Shillong, Silchar, Aizawl and Agartala in the second direction and to Itanagar in the third direction. Gangtok will be connected from Siliguri from the gas pipeline of Gail coming from Barauni to Guwahati, NRL said.     

India is promoting the usage of gas to tackle air pollution. The government is focusing on building pipelines, especially in the eastern and the north-eastern parts of India where usage of gas in very low.