Bid for Surat-Paradip pipeline by next week: PNGRB

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) is likely to float a bid for the Surat-Paradip pipeline by next week.

"By next week, we will be inviting bids for the Surat- Paradip pipeline," Board Chairman Lalit Mansingh said in an interactive session organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here yesterday.

He said this is one of the nine pipelines approved by the Centre. Of them two pipelines- Surat-Paradip and the Kakinada, Howrah pipeline, pass through coastal Orissa.
    
The latter is to be commissioned by 2012, but the work is yet to start, and the Board is trying its best to begin it soon, he said.
    
The piplines would help in better distribution of gas, especially in the Paradip region, he said.
    
He also said that the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR), proposed to be set up in Paradip, would require a transparent mechanism like single window clearance at the local level.
    
Priyabrata Patnaik, Chairman and MD of the state-owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa said that Paradip qualified for the location of the PCPIR for which 284.15 sq km (70,214 acre) in Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts had been suggested.