Gas grid to criss-cross whole of Gujarat

Gujarat State Petronet Ltd, a group company of the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, plans to connect all 25 districts of the state with 2,200-kilometre high pressure gas pipeline laid down across the state.

While inaugurating the gas pipeline stretch connecting Vapi industrial belt with Surat and further on to Dahej LNG receiving station of Petronet LNG Gujarat, chief minister Narendra Modi said the state government emphasized to have gas based economy.

Explaining the rationale behind two new proposed LNG terminals in the state Modi said his government is committed to bring gas from all the possible sources that include imported LNG and gas from the GSPC discovered Krishna Godavari basin.

Presently, GSPL has a pipeline network of 1,200 km from Surat to Bharuch to Dahej to Vadodara to Ahmedabad to Kalol to Himmatnagar to Morbi and supples gas to 26 customers in cities like Surat, Dahej, Bharuch, Anand, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Kalol, Himmatnagar, Morbi, and now in Vapi.

In addition, GSPL is presently constructing 30-inch, 110 km Rajkot "" Jamnagar pipeline and 24-inch, 250 km Dharod "" Pipavav, 250 km Morbi to Mundra and 120 km Mehsana to Palanpur pipeline. All this is a part of the Vision 2010 Statement of the Government of Gujarat to lay pipelines across the length and breadth of Gujarat.

Looking to the importance of the state gas grid in realising Gujarat's aim to emerge as the petro capital of the country, the state government has accorded top priority and extended full administrative and moral support to the project said D J Pandian, Managing Director, GSPC.

On Monday GSPL commissioned 30-inch, 12-km Surat - Vapi pipeline. GSPL is now in a position to provide transmission services to the major markets in Gujarat from various supply sources such as GSPC "" Niko fields in Hazira, PMT JV fields in Bombay High, Shell's LNG Terminal at Hazira, Cairn's field in Suvali and PLL LNG Terminal at Dahej.

The region of Vapi and Valsad is considered to be the industrial hub of South Gujarat. In fact, Vapi Industrial Estate is the largest industrial estate in Asia in terms of number of units.

The region has achieved tremendous growth in the past theree decades and today has over 3000 manufacturing units (chemicals and dyes, paints, paper, pharmaceuticals, textiles, glass and plastic units).

About 70 per cent of the industries in Vapi are chemicals and chemical-related industries like dyes, dye intermediaries, pigments, pesticides among others.

Vapi and its surrounding region is emerging as a textile hub with major industrial units like GHCL and others planning to set up textile units in Vapi and addition to Raymond's, Welspun and Alok Industries which are already present.

The major factors that have led to the growth of this industry in the region are the entrepreneurial spirit of the people, abundant availability of raw material, and trained manpower.