February 2020, Vol. 247, No. 2
Projects
India Approves $774 Million for Gas Pipeline in Northeast
India approved funding of $774 million (955.6 billion rupees) for a natural gas pipeline in its northeast, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, as part of a national gas grid being built to span remote locations.
India aims to spend up to $60 billion by 2024 to set up the grid and several terminals for LNG, as it scrambles to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2030 target of a 15% share for natural gas in the energy mix, up from 6.5% now, according to Reuters.
The 1,029-mile (1,656-km) pipeline will cost up to $1.31 billion to build.
“The government will provide 60% viability gap funding of the project cost,” Pradhan told a conference in the capital, New Delhi, adding, “It will be 5,559 crores,” or the equivalent of $780 million (55.6 billion rupees).
The gas grid linking eight states in a region bordering Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Myanmar is expected to be complete by 2023.
Despite the plan, the growth of gas consumption eased to 2.5% in fiscal 2018-19 from 11% in 2009-10, mainly because of a lack of infrastructure.
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