Minster of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora on Monday commissioned the first stretch of the Dahej - Panvel - Dabhol pipeline from Dahej to Surat.

Close on the heels of the gas into the first stretch of the Dabhol - Panvel - Dabhol pipeline, decks have been cleared for the resumption of the work on a 12 km stretch of the pipeline in Chourasiya Taluka in Surat district with the active support from the Gujarat government and the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

GAIL is laying 30" diameter, 576 km long Dahej - Panvel - Dabhol pipeline at an estimated investment of Rs. 3200 crore. The pipeline has a design capacity of 12 MMSCMD and will carry R-LNG from Petronet LNG Limited's LNG terminal at Dahej to Dabhol.

The pipeline on completion, will supply natural gas to the Dabhol Power plant of Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Limited, and thus help in revival of the power plant.

However, being a project of national importance for revival of Dabhol power plant, the project is being monitored regularly by Empowered Group of Ministers and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to ensure speedy completion of this project.

According to the officials, 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 5 different gas supply sources namely, (a) the South Bassein fields; (b) Panna-Mukta Tapti Field; (c) Lakshmi fields; (d) Dahej RLNG and (d) Shell RLNG. On the other hand, 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 shall be interconnected. The pipeline will also enable supply of natural gas to various cities and towns and industries in areas falling enroute to the pipeline such as Vapi, Valsad, Navsari etc.

Deora along with other dignitaries also inspected the pipeline laying work at Surat which had faced some difficulties.