GAIL awards Rs 550-cr contracts for 'Urga Ganga' pipeline

GAIL India Limited, India's biggest gas transporter, on Wednesday said it has awarded Rs 550 crore worth of contracts for laying part of 'Urga Ganga' gas pipeline from Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to Haldia in West Bengal (WB).

Pipe contracts have been awarded to four companies for a 341 km stretch, GAIL said in a statement.

"The Line Pipes for which the orders have been placed will be used in the Phulpur-Dobhi (Bihar) section of the pipeline," it said.

Orders for the pipes have been placed on Jindal Saw, MAN Industries (India), Essar Steel India and China's Zhongyou BSS (Qinhuangdao) Petropipe Co Ltd.

The 1,681 km Phulpur-Haldia/Dhamra pipeline will be completed in three phases at a cost of Rs 12,000 crore and cover eastern UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and WB.

The first phase at a project cost of Rs 3,200 crore will cover 755 km and include Phulpur-Mani, Mani-Gorakhpur, Mani-Varanasi, Mani-Dobhi, Dobhi-Silao, Silao-Patna and Silao- Barauni sections.

Pipeline laying works for spurlines from Gaya-Barauni- Patna in Bihar are already in progress.

Subsequent phases of the 16 million standard cubic meters a day pipeline will cover major cities including Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Patna, Barauni, Bokaro, Ranchi, Rourkela, Paradip, Bhubaneshwar, Cuttack, Durgapur, Kolkata, Jamshedpur and nearby areas through 30-inch/24-inch mainline and spurlines.