New Delhi: Taking a major step to ensure the availability of natural gas for large customers, GAIL (India) Limited has laid a dedicated pipeline to supply the fuel to HPCL Mittal Energy Ltd.'s (HMEL) refinery in Bathinda, Punjab.

The Gas Receiving Station for the pipeline was inaugurated on Saturday by HMEL's Managing Director and CEO Prabh Das in the presence of GAIL (India) Ltd's Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) Manoj Jain, Engineers India Limited's (EIL) Chairperson & Managing Director (CMD) Vartika Shukla and GAIL's Director (Projects) Deepak Gupta.

The dedicated pipeline, which will supply 1 MMSCMD gas to HMEL, has been laid at a cost of Rs 142 crore. The 44.26 Km pipeline of 12-inch diameter (total capacity – 5 MMSCMD) is a spur line of the 500 Km Dadri – Bawana – Nangal Pipeline (DBNPL). The natural gas supply taps off is taken from GAIL receiving terminal at NFL, Bathinda.

The DBNPL is a part of the National Gas Grid and runs from Dadri (Uttar Pradesh) through Yamunanagar (Haryana) to Nangal (Punjab), to meet the energy demand of these northern states. The pipeline will boost the supply of natural gas in the region, resulting in increased supply for domestic households, vehicles, and commercial and industrial establishments. It already supplies gas to various industrial customers and city gas networks, i.e., IGL Ghaziabad, Bawana, Saharanpur, Yamunanagar and Mandigovindgarh, Nangal, Ludhiana, NFL Bhatinda, CGS Ludhiana, etc.

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