Gail (India) has completed the engineering survey of the massive National Gas Grid (NGG) project, that too, ahead of schedule.

The survey is a pre-requisite to obtain the right-of-use (RoU) certificate, which would enable the company to start work on the project. The RoU certificates are expected to be in place by September 2004.

The project will have 12 major segments, work in the Dahej-Vijaipur segment has recently been completed. The Dahej-Hazira-Uran pipeline is likely to be commissioned by the end of 2004. In the next phase, work would begin from Kakinada where the gas find of the KG basin (offshore Andhra Pradesh) will be evacuated. Kakinada will have three feeder lines connecting Chennai, Uran and Kolkata.

Gail has also proposed to include the north-eastern region in the NGG, to ultimate facilitate gas imports from Myanmar.

The NGG is a Rs.20,000 crore project that entails setting up of a 7,000-odd km of gas grid network in the country. The network will connect gas supply points (including LNG terminals and NELP gas discoveries) to consuming centres. The grid will have 6,490 km of main lines and 1,400 km of associated spur lines. The entire project is targeted for completion by 2008.