New Delhi: GAIL India Ltd, India''s largest gas company, and Infraline Technologies (www.infraline.com), a premier consulting company in the infrastructure sector, have entered into an alliance for doing a thorough research and assimilation for the state of natural gas in India.

The outcome of this alliance will be published in the form of GAIL Infraline Natural Gas in India: A Reference Book. Both Infraline and GAIL will be jointly working on this project.

An expert panel committee has been formed by GAIL for this project. The primary author for this project will be Infraline. GAIL chairman and managing director Proshanto Banerjee will be writing a foreword for the book. The project also has inputs from CRISIL, Trilegal, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Shell India.

Says Banerjee: "GAIL Infraline Natural Gas in India project will provide a central resource for the entire industry to follow. We are glad to be associated with it."

Says Infraline Technologies India director Yogesh Garg: "The reference book will be a source of definitive information on the entire natural gas scenario in India and will help anyone with an interest in this sector, to formulate their strategies for future."

GAIL has become the exclusive sponsor of the reference book. In order to make the project more useful there will be updates in the 13^th and 25^th month of publishing.

The draft has been shared with key leaders in the sector who have reviewed and given their respective inputs. Says Shaajee Verghese, director (sales and services), GE Power Services India: "The information [presented in the book] can be of great help for the all industry segments [power producers and power consumers]. The book puts together information gathered from various resources, hence it should be of great help to people at the corporate level, investors planning and also to new entrants in the segment."

Says T L Sankar, chairman, Committee on Utilisation of Natural Gas, Andhra Pradesh: "The draft report will be a valuable addition to the knowledge about the gas industry in India. It can be of use not only to the industry executives but also to senior officials and scholars. It has brought together information from very diverse sources and, therefore, it should be a matter of great assistance to those who are dealing with policies, programmes, investments and transactions in the gas industry."

Says Gokul Chaudhri of Ernst & Young, India: "The efforts of Infraline to collate the colossal quantum of knowledge and information on the emerging gas industry is valuable and appreciated, and will be useful to all players in this business."

GAIL is India''s No 1 gas company having over 4500km network of natural gas pipeline and has forayed into areas of gas processing, production of LPG and other liquid hydrocarbons, petrochemical products like HDPE and LLDPE, bandwidth leasing in the telecom sector and is active in exploration and production activities.

GAIL has recorded impressive financial results during 2002-2003. The provisional turnover (including internal consumption) reached Rs 11,763 crore against Rs 10,553 crore in 2001-02, registering an 11-per cent increase. GAIL is second among the top 25 global gas utilities in terms of return on invested capital (ROIC), according to the Platts Global Business Survey 2001-02.

Keeping in view the excellent performance and growth prospects of GAIL, Aberdeen Asset Management Company has rated GAIL as a preferred investment among Asian stocks. GAIL has also found a place among the 20 Indian companies that are figuring in the Forbes Global 2000, a comprehensive list of the world''s biggest companies as measured by a composite ranking of sales, profits, assets and market value.

Infraline is the leading consulting and information company in the infrastructure sector. Most leading multinational corporations, public sector companies, industry associations, financial organisations and international consultants use Infraline as their primary source pertaining to the infrastructure sector.

Some of Infraline''s clients include Alstom, Ambit, Arthur Anderson, Ashurst Morris Crisp, AWR Asia, British Petroleum, Chambers of Zia Mody, Citibank, CRISIL, CLP Power International, Cummins Power Solutions, Energy (India) Infrastructure Ltd., Ernst & Young, Gas Authority of India Limited, Gujarat Electricity Board, Grasim Industries, Indian Oil Corporation, ICRA, ICICI, Itochu, JM Morgan Stanley, KLG Systel, KPMG, KSK Energy Ventures Maharashtra State Electricity Board, Power Finance Corporation, PowerGen, Reliance, Rolls Royce Energy Systems, SBI Caps, Skadden Arps, Standard Chartered, SUN Capital, Tata Power, Tuma Turbomach (Babcock), Unocal and others.