Petronet India Ltd is likely to formally shelve the Rs 2,450 crore (Rs 24.5 billion) central India petroleum product pipeline project this month as its promoters are no longer keen on the project.

"The board of PIL is to meet on April 17 where a final view on the project will be taken," sources close to the project said.

Project promoters -- Reliance Industries Ltd, state-owned Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Essar Oil -- who had earlier resisted signing take-or-pay agreements with the pipeline contractor, are no longer interested in the project.

"The project will be given a formal burial at the next board meeting," they said adding the April 17 meeting may, however, not take place as some board members have other commitments.

In case the board of PIL doesn't meet on April 17, it would take place next month.

"The Build Own Operate Transfer model was a non-starter. The contractors were unable to get firm take-of-pay commitments," sources said.

PIL promoter companies would be free to lay their own pipeline along the route of central India, if they wished to do so, they added.

The central India pipeline was to evacuate petroleum products from refineries in Gujarat to consumption centres in central and north India.

Central India pipeline is the only project pending with Petronet India Ltd, the holding company promoted by IOC, BPCL and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

The pipeline project was targeted for completion by May 2004.

Sources said IOC was keen to lay a product pipeline from its Koyali refinery in Gujarat to Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh (the route of central India pipeline) and was willing to team up with Reliance if it built the Jamnagar-Koyali part on its own and share the cost of the remaining stretch with IOC.

Central India Pipeline project was to traverse from Jamnagar to Ratlam via Rajkot and Koyali. From Ratlam one section was to branch to Gwalior and the other section to Nagpur to feed the various consumption zones in central India, sources said.

While Reliance Petroleum Ltd, IOC and Petronet India held 26 per cent stake each in the mega pipeline project, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Essar Oil had 11 per cent apiece.