Union petroleum minister Murli Deora today inaugurated GAIL''s first stretch of the 100 km of the Dahej-Panvel-Dabhol pipeline from Dahej to Surat, with the gas-in at Dahej.

Deora also inspected the pipeline laying work at Surat which had earlier faced some difficulties. Close on the heels of the gas-in into the first stretch of the Dahej-Panvel-Dabhol pipeline, decks have now been cleared for the resumption of the work on a 12km stretch of the pipeline in Chourasiya Taluka in Surat district.

GAIL is laying 30" diameter gas pipes over the 576km Dahej-Panvel-Dabhol pipeline at an estimated investment of Rs3,200 crore. The pipeline has a design capacity of 12 MMSCMD and will carry R-LNG from Petronet LNG Ltd''s LNG from Dahej to Dabhol. On completion, the pipeline will supply natural gas to the Dabhol Power plant.

The project is being monitored regularly by the empowered group of ministers and ministry of petroleum and natural gas to ensure expeditious completion of this project.

The inter-state gas pipeline would link the two important gas markets of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Currently, the gas market in Gujarat has access to five different gas supply sources namely - the South Bassein fields; Panna-Mukta-Tapti Field; Lakshmi fields; Dahej RLNG and Shell RLNG.

The Maharashtra market has access to gas supplies from only the Bombay High Fields, which is fast declining. Once the DUPL project is commissioned, the Gujarat and Maharashtra markets will be interconnected. The pipeline will also enable supply of natural gas to various cities and towns in areas falling on the route of the pipeline such as.

The project is being executed in five spreads with the deployment of heavy construction equipment. Around 222km stretch of the pipeline falls in Gujarat and the remaining 354km stretch passes through Maharashtra.

At Dahej terminal, the gas will have throughput of 92kg per sq. centimeter pressure for gas to reach Dabhol. The pipeline traverses through 33 river crossings including 1km wide stretches on Narmada and Tapi rivers.

The construction on the pipeline commenced in May 2006 and the commissioning of the first stretch started from 17 April, 2007. The entire project is scheduled for completion by the end of May 2007 and the gas supply to the Dabhol Power Plant is expected by June end.