By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, October 18, 2017: Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is scheduled to launch the piped natural gas distribution system in Odisha under the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Yojana on October 20, according to Ashutosh Karnatak, Director (projects), GAIL.

Some 225 families of Nalco Nagar in Bhubaneswar will get the benefit of the distribution system in the first phase. It also plans to provide PNG connections in the near future to adjacent Jeevan Bima Colony and Maitri Vihar Colony, covering a total of 1,000 houses. Assessment was also being carried out for PNG supply to leading hotels, hospitals and industrial units of the city, Karnatak said.

The facility will be later extended to Cuttack, Khurda, Puri, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Angul, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Sundergarh, Deogarh and Jagatsinghpur districts in phases, he added.

Payments will be done by consumers on usage basis through meter reading.

Around 25,000 households in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack will get Piped Natural Gas (PNG) connection in their kitchens by December 2019 as part of the City Gas Distribution (CGD) project. The number of PNG connections will be gradually ramped up in the next three to five years, Karnatak told media persons. .

About 25 CNG stations will be commissioned in the Twin Cities to supply compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel to vehicles, he added.

In Bhubaneswar, construction activities of CNG stations had already commenced in Chandrasekharpur, Patia, Khandagiri and Tamando, and supply would begin at the earliest, said Karnatak.

The CGD projects in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack are being taken up parallel to the Jagdishpur-Haldia and Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL), popularly known as Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga.

In Odisha, the natural gas pipeline will be constructed at an estimated investment of Rs 4,000 crore and have a length of about 769 km covering 13 districts — Bhadrak, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Angul, Sundergarh, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Debagarh, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Khordha, Puri and Kendrapara.

It will also connect major industrial clusters of Khurdha, Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Angul, Dhenkanal, Kalinganagar, Jajpur and Paradip.

Initially, natural gas will reach Bhubaneswar in special containers called “cascades” which will be transported by road from Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh. Later, natural gas will be supplied through the Jagdishpur-Haldia and Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL), according to the GAIL Director.

The pipeline is currently under construction and likely to be completed by 2019, he added.

The commencement of supply of natural gas will pass through five states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal.