The completion of GAIL’s Urja Ganga gas pipeline project, costing Rs 12,940 crore, has been delayed by nine months and is now expected to be finished by March 2025. This project aims to bring clean fuel to eastern India. Originally, the 3,306-kilometre pipeline from Jagdishpur to Haldia, Bokaro, and Dhamra was supposed to be completed by June 2024, but delays in getting land rights have pushed back the schedule.
Most of the pipeline has been built, and gas is already flowing to many cities along its route. Before this project, natural gas was mainly available in the western and northern parts of India. Work on the pipeline started in October 2016, extending from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal, Bokaro in Jharkhand, and Dhamra in Odisha. It was also extended to Guwahati in Assam.
GAIL’s board of directors approved the revised completion date in a meeting on June 28. The 240-km Dhamra-Haldia section of the pipeline will also be completed by March 2025.
The government has provided significant funding to support this project. For the Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra Pipeline (JHBDPL), also known as the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga pipeline, the government provided 40% of the cost, amounting to Rs 5,176 crore. For the Barauni-Guwahati pipeline extension, 60% of the cost, or Rs 5,559 crore, was funded by the government.
The Urja Ganga pipeline will connect over 90 geographical areas across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, and the northeastern region of India. Once completed, this project will make natural gas more accessible and affordable in eastern India, thanks to new tariff regulations reducing transportation costs by about 50%.
The pipeline has already started supplying gas to seven cities: Varanasi, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, and Cuttack. It also connects refineries in Barauni, Haldia, and Paradip. The JHBDPL will have the capacity to transmit 16 million cubic metres of natural gas per day.
