3 years on, no headway in Kashmir gas pipeline project
The ambitious Rs 10,000-crore gas pipeline project to Kashmir is caught in bureaucratic wrangles for the past three years as a proposed Memorandum of Understanding between the state government and GSPL IndiaGasnet Limited (GIGL), Gujarat, the executing agency for the plan,is yet to be signed. According to sources, the draft MoU was submitted by the firm for the laying the pipeline network two years back, but it never saw any headway thereafter. In a meeting held in June this year, Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution ChowdharyZulfikar Ali had directed the stakeholders to fast-track the MoU.
The CA&PD department is the nodal agency for the project in the state. An official, closely associated with the project, told Greater Kashmir that among other bottlenecks, a bottleneck in the way of the project execution is that the needs to notify Section 5 (1) so that the consortium along with oil marketing companies like IOC , HPCL and BPCL can make necessary payments to the farmers for Rights of Use (ROU) compensation. The Revenue department needs to finalize notification so that payments are made from the firm to the J&K government.
Secretary Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution is supposed to finalize the MoU, the official said.According to the official, the consortium has already secured permissions from Wildlife and Forest departments and also got a nod from the Supreme Court and the State Pollution Control Board as well, for the project. According to the draft MoU, the entire funding for bringing piped gas to Kashmir Valley has to be made by the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the project has to be completed by 2019.
Pertinently, after his predecessor Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed has already written to Union Ministry of Petroleum and Haryana Chief Minister to clear the hurdles in executing the project named Gas Pipeline (Mehsana-Bathindaand Bathinda-Jammu-Srinagar). The project plans laying of natural gas pipeline in two phases, from Mahesana to Bhatinda and then from Bhatinda to Srinagar via Jammu. The project was cleared by the National Conference-led government in 2011 after the GSPL-led consortium bagged the order for it after bidding.
The project envisages supply of round-the-clock LPG to Kashmir which faces frequent shortage of cooking gas in winters due to closure of Srinagar-Jammu highway, sometimes for days together. Once completed, several districts namely Kathua, Jammu, Samba, Udhampur, Ramban, Islamabad (Anantnag) and Srinagar would get connected through the pipeline in the first phase. The project is initially expected to generate two lakh jobs and 80 percent of employment has to be local, official said.
A funding of Rs 102 crore has been earmarked for the project in Kathua and Samba, but before the amount is spent, the state government has to notify Sec 5 (1), an official said. There has to be declaration of intent by the state government that a particular land would be used for laying of gas pipes, the official said. Among other pre-requisites for the project to get started is that work on city gas distribution as well as lateral connectivity must also begin, he said.
The likely benefits from the project for the valley include setting up of gas-based power plants which could well address its energy needs, the official added. The original completion date for laying the 725 km long pipeline project was July 6, 2014. In June 2013, J&K Governor issued an Ordinance to facilitate acquisition of land for laying the pipeline from Bhatinda in Punjab to Srinagar via Jammu.
In view of the special position of J&K under Article 370, the ordinance was mandatory to facilitate the acquisition of land by the Gujarat-based Corporation for the pipeline. The ordinance has been modelled on Gujarat Water and Gas Pipeline Act, 2000..
https://www.nyoooz.com/kashmir/241571/3-years-on-no-headway-in-kashmir-gas-pipeline-project