B’LURU HEADED FOR GAS TROUBLE

GAIL is looking to dig 660 km of Bengaluru's roads to bring piped natural gas to your kitchen

Comfort comes at a price. So, commuters can get ready to pay up. GAIL Gas Limited wants to dig up

659.46 km of city's roads to bring piped natural gas home. All the digging is just what Bengaluru's

battered roads needed.

As of now, GAIL has sought permission to dig 659.5 km, but has got the go-ahead for only 447.3 km.

BBMP is clearly playing it safe by going slow on the permit.

In fact, GAIL's request to dig 15 km in ward no 150 in Bellandur was rejected by the civic agency. It

has allowed for 6.4 km instead.

After Whitefield, HSR Layout, Jalahalli and other areas, GAIL is all set to start digging at Nagwara,

HBR Layout (ward roads and major roads), Malleswaram, Kadu Malleswara, Railway parallel road,

even Sarjapur / Doddakanahalli-Kadubeesanahalli road, Hennur-Bagalur road and HAL airport road.

Six months since the company applied for permission to lay 141.8 km of pipeline, routing it through

respective ward offices, it is yet to get the go-ahead. GAIL has been laying steel and medium-density

polyethylene (MDPE) pipelines.

AN EASIER WAY

Worried by the delay, GAIL has even shown interest in technologies adopted for laying optical fiber

cables in the city – the Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) technique, which causes much less

inconvenience to the public. Although GAIL has the permission to lay the pipeline through open-cut

technique for a few stretches, the company has laid a substantial length of steel as well as MDPE

pipelines through HDD method, disturbing only the topmost layer of the roads. The gas company has

also urged the BBMP to adopt piped natural gas at its crematoriums instead of using diesel

generators. In a letter to the BBMP commissioner, Partha Jana, general manager of the company,

wrote: "GAIL has been authorised by petroleum and natural gas regulatory board for laying, building,

operating or expanding city gas distribution network in the geographical area of Bengaluru rural and

urban districts. We are committed to provide the greener fuel i.e. natural gas as environment-

friendly fuel for Bengalauru, which will help in reducing the rising pollution level in the city."

"It is understood that BBMP is using BESCOM power and diesel generators inside crematorium. As

[is] evident, significant cost-saving can be achieved with switchover to piped natural gas. Already,

the municipal corporation of greater Mumbai has decided to convert phase-wise all its 44

wood/electricity consuming crematoria across the city to PNG-based. The cost effective move will

help in huge savings on electricity bills besides protecting trees and environment," the letter said.

NGS INDIA