NORTH EAST NATURAL GAS PIPELINE GRID

Related Topic in KAS Prelims Syllabus:

Economy [Paper-II]: Infrastructure in Indian Economy, Energy and Power

News

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved a Capital Grant as the Viability Gap Funding to Indradhanush Gas Grid Ltd (IGCL) for setting up the North East Natural Gas Pipeline Grid.

North East Gas Grid Project

• The North East Gas Grid project is being implemented by Indradhanush Gas Grid Ltd (IGGL).
• IGGL is a joint venture company of five central public sector enterprises, namely IndianOil, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, GAIL, Oil India and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd.
• The joint venture was incorporated in August 2018 to develop and operate a natural gas pipeline grid in the North-East region.
• The total length of the pipeline is planned to be 1,656 km and will be built at estimated cost of 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’.

Socio-Economic and Environmental Benefits

• Development of industrial climate in eight states of the north-eastern region.
• Reduction in the usage of kerosene, wood etc. due to increased usage of environment friendly fuel natural gas thereby improving the environment in the region.
• Improvement in the standard of living of peoples living in the region.
• It will boost Exploration & Production activities and connect regional gas sources with pipeline network for early monetisation of natural resources in the region.
• Possibility of installling bottling plants for LPG can be explored for reducing transportation cost.
• Uninterrupted supply of LPG in the region will bring energy security to the people in the area.