Guwahati: Nearly 62 per cent of the work has been completed so far of the North East Gas Grid Project which would connect major cities of the region with a natural gas pipeline network.

The Rs 9265 crores project which envisages constructing a pipeline network of 1656 kilometer is being implemented by joint venture company Indradhanush Gas Grid Limited (IGGL) formed by a consortium of companies Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Oil India Limited and Numaligarh Refinery Limited.
However, the pipeline laying across the region is a challenging task due to the hilly terrain and rivers.

“Zigzag roads in mountainous state like Sikkim is posing a challenge in pipeline laying. Land acquisition is another problem faced by the company. IGGL is working to solve these problems,” a senior official working with the project told BNE.

The project was conceived in the line with Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for Northeast India to supply natural gas to the eight states of Northeast regions like Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

According to the IGGL, once the project gets implemented there will be tremendous growth in the industrial sector.
This will make natural gas available to all the major cities of the northeast.

The pipeline network will be upto Barauni. It will connect Guwahati with Barauni called BGPL (Barauni Guwahati pipeline) which will be connected till Changsari. From Changsari IGGL is making the northeast gas grid. It will cover area from Changsari Northbank to Mangaldoi, Biswanath upto Lakhimpur. From Lakhimpur it will cross Brahmaputra via Majuli than will be connected to Jorhat. From Jorhat it will come to Numaligarh. From Numaligarh it will go to Dimapur, Kohima and Imphal. GAIL will have another line near Panikhaiti. From there Gas will be taken to Sonapur than to Shillong and Silchar. From Silchar to Agartala and finally to Aizawl.

The third line will go from Siliguri to Gangtok.

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