TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: State government has plans to supply piped domestic gas supply to consumers within next two years, by utilising the 175 km Gas Authority of India gas pipeline, which has already been laid, connecting Goa to Gokak, to provide Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
Reliance Infrastructure Limited and Zuari Industries are already receiving LNG while other industries have requested for this fuel. LNG is a raw material for power and fertilizer manufacture.
Speaking to media persons, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said that the gas supplied through GAIL pipeline would be made available to the households within the next two years. State government is intends to form Goa State Gas Corporation or a State run corporation to explore the feasibility of utilizing the gas pipeline to provide cooking gas to the households in state, he said.
“The Corporation will get into a joint venture with GAIL to supply gas to industrial units and households will get it at affordable rates,” Parrikar said.
The Chief Minister was speaking on the sidelines of launching of KTC school bus for T B Cunha Higher secondary School on Friday.
Parrikar said that the households which will get the gas connection “can do away with the LPG cylinders which they had been using thus far. At present the pipeline has reached Verna. We can also tap the pipeline at Bhoma village and allow the gas to be supplied to Panjim,” he explained.
Chief Minister said that the process will take at least two years as the pipeline has to be laid from point to point, connecting households to the main source.
The GAIL pipeline, which connects Dabhol, Maharashtra to Bidadi in Karnataka, was tapped at Gokak (Karnataka) and diverted to Goa, where the gas is to be used as fuel by industries. The project had received approval from GAIL board in 2009.
