GAIL's Bawana-Nangal Pipeline: Protest for Higher Land Compensation Reaches Punjab, Project at Standstill

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (Delhi, India)--GAIL (India) Limited (BSE:532155) (New Delhi) is finding it increasingly difficult to move ahead with the company's Bawana-Nangal Pipeline project because of wide-scale protests regarding land acquisition. While these protests were initially limited to the Baghpat and Muzaffarnagar districts of Uttar Pradesh, they have now spread to the fertile tracts of Punjab.

In Punjab, GAIL requires permanent plots of land for setting up terminals and stations. However, the gas major has yet to arrive at a settlement with the farmers and land owners in the region. Area farmers have quoted rates that GAIL considers unacceptable for permanent plots of land.

The project is intended to supply gas to consumers in the Bhatinda, Yamuna Nagar and Nangal regions. The project involves laying a 150-kilometer pipeline from the Bawana tap-off point (TOP) to the Saharanpur TOP; a 145-kilometer pipeline from the Saharanpur TOP to the Ludhiana TOP; a 124-kilometer pipeline from the Ludhiana TOP to Bhatinda; and an 82.5-kilometer pipeline from Khanna TOP to National Fertilizers Limited in Nangal.

The project work has also been hampered by a delay in the delivery of line pipes for spreads 2 and 3 of the pipeline, owing to untimely receipt of hot-rolled coils from Turkish steel producer Erdemir. This has forced GAIL to seek alternate arrangements to expedite delivery of pending items.

The project is running behind schedule by two months and is expected to be completed June 2011.

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