Union Cabinet approves Capital Grant of 60 % of Rs 9,265 crore for North East Natural Gas Pipeline Grid

by Shrutee K/DNS

New Delhi : Giving a major boost to development of natural gas grid in North East India, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, today approved Viability Gap Funding/ Capital Grant of 60% of the estimated cost of Rs. 9,265 crore for the project to Indradhanush Gas Grid Limited (IGGL).

The North East Gas Grid project is being implemented by IGGL, a Joint Venture company of five CPSEs (GAIL, IOCL, ONGC, OIL and NRL). The total length of the pipeline is planned to be 1,656 km and will be built at estimated cost of Rs. 9,265 crore (Including interest during construction). It will cover eight states of the North-Eastern region i.e., Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.

The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas will identify milestones for major activities for this project and link the same for releases of capital grant of the project.

For effective monitoring of the project implementation, a Committee comprising of officials from 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 will be formed, which would periodically review the progress in implementation of the project and take steps to smoothen out any issues in execution.

IGGL will enhance availability of natural gas in North East and ensure uninterrupted supply of natural gas to industries, domestic consumers and for transport purposes to establish a clean fuel led economy.

The North East Gas Grid will get the natural gas supply from GAIL’s Barauni - Guwahati pipeline, which is a part of Jagdishpur – Haldia & Bokaro – Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline Project, popularly known as ‘Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga’.

Expressing gratitude to the Government for the crucial decision to approve Capital Grant to IGGL, GAIL Chairman & Managing Director Dr. Ashutosh Karnatak said it would boost the gas based industries in North East India. He said GAIL has already enabled an online portal through which third parties can easily book Common Carrier capacity for natural gas transmission services under GAIL’s pipelines. More than 2,000 consumers have already utilized the services and industrialists from North-East will also be benefitted once the natural gas grid is developed in the region, Dr Karnatak said.