Bhubaneswar: Foundation stones for two LNG pipelines of 600 km were laid in Sukinda area of Orissa’s Jajpur district Sunday, marking a giant leap in the spread of Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga in the state.
Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan laid the foundation stones for new Dhamra-Angul 36 inch main pipeline and Bhubaneshwar–Cuttack–Paradip 12 inch spur line at Haripur, Sukinda.
Describing the 600-km natural gas pipeline project as a new year gift for the people of coastal Orissa from the Centre, Pradhan said foundation stone for the LNG Terminal at Dhamra with an investment of Rs 6000 crore has already been laid recently.
Gas will be imported from countries like Australia, Qatar in cape size vessels and will be supplied to Allahabad of Uttar Pradesh through over 2500 km long pipeline, he said.
Out of that, 600 km natural gas pipeline will be constructed in Orissa covering 13 districts of the state.
This longest pipeline project is a major step towards fulfillment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of developing a gas-based economy and linking Eastern India to the country’s Natural Gas Grid. It will lead to development of high quality manufacturing in Orissa, the minister said.
This will add more values to the minerals of the mineral rich state like Orissa. As of now, steel produced in Orissa was limited to construction of houses and angle making.
But now the steel and aluminium which will be produced in Orissa using gas will be of high quality and will lead to manufacturing of automobiles and Orissa can be a centre of high quality steel production.
Pradhan also opined that, since a long time Tata has been able to utilise natural resources of Orissa. Now the company should come forward to manufacture heavy vehicles like trucks in Orissa using this natural gas.
As part of this pipeline project the Oil Minister had Saturday inaugurated three Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations at Bhubaneswar.
PTI
