Consensus among Oil, Fertiliser & Steel Ministers on resolving bottlenecks
The NDA Government, in one of its major big ticket decisions, has given an in-principle approval to the country’s first petrochemical hub consisting of Jagdishpur-Haldia gas pipeline, which will pass through Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency of Varanasi and will ensure cooking gas supply in Tier-II cities of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Top sources privy to the development said that a date for the commencement of the project will be announced soon formally.
Four urea plants in Gorakhpur, Barauni, Durgapur and Haldia as well as one steel plant in Sindri are also part of the ambitious project, which has been expedited at the instance of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Highly placed sources told The Pioneer that Fertiliser Minister Ananth Kumar, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Steel Minister Narendra Singh Tomar - held hectic parleys in two successive meetings held over the weekend, which also included their top officials. The ministers on Monday, among themselves decided to resolve all the outstanding issues which had been holding back the project and sources informed that the official commencement of the project will be announced within the next few days.
Though the 2,050 km long Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline project had been envisaged in 2007 by GAIl at a cost of Rs 7,600 crore, it got incessantly delayed owing to Maharatna company’s inability to find an anchor investor. Secondly all the significant fertiliser units belonging to State-owned Fertiliser Corporation of India ltd (FCIl) as well as Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation ltd (HFCl), which fall on the route of the proposed pipeline, had refused to book transportation capacity for it.
However, more significantly, FCIl’s Gorakhpur and Sindri fertiliser units and HFCl’s Haldia, Durgapur and Barauni units - which are all located at significant points of Jagdish-Haldia pipeline’s route - had gone defunct since both FCIl and HFCl had been referred to BIFR, and it is only in the recent years when their revival has been ordered.
Modi, within a couple of weeks after taking charge of the PMO, had summoned Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to discuss the matter. Subsequently between June 11 (when the first meeting on the project was held between Petroleum, Fertiliser and Steel Ministries) and August 3, sources pointed out that under the supervision of the three ministers, top officials of the respective ministries agreed to work in cohesion for removing the prevailing bottlenecks and ensuring smooth take-off for the project.
Accordingly after a consensus emerged among the three ministries on outstanding issues, sources with direct knowledge of the development said that it was decided to formally announce the commencement of the project soon.
The fast tracking of the project has been mainly due to PMO’s direct intervention, as its implementation will not only enable gas supply in key States of UP and Bihar, but its easy availability in these densely populated States will also widen GAIl’s gas network there. Once this happens, sources pointed out, the project’s functioning will help in lessening the gas subsidy burden on the Government in the long run. Official sources pointed that despite being a crucial region - with both UP and Bihar falling within the Gangetic plan - there is huge paucity of gas there, and the Jagdishpur-Haldia project will be crucial for the overall development of the area.