The Hindu Business Line : Reliance proposes to pipe natural gas to Tamil Nadu in 2-3 years

Piped gas supply: THE RELIANCE Industries Chairman, Mr Mukesh Ambani, calling on the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi, at the Chief Minister's residence in Chennai on Sunday. The Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, is also seen. — Bijoy Ghosh

Chennai , Dec. 3

Reliance Industries Ltd will launch the project to pipe natural gas to Tamil Nadu in 2-3 years time, according to its Chairman, Mr Mukesh Ambani.

Addressing reporters after a meeting with the Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi, here, he said, "what we discussed was to bring huge quantities of natural gas" to Tamil Nadu.

The plan was to create a southern corridor pipeline to bring to Tamil Nadu a portion of the reserves of natural gas available at the Krishna-Godavari basin. It may be recalled that Reliance had announced plans to start gas production from the Krishna-Godavari blocks from the second quarter of 2008. It has found significant quantities of gas in the KG-D6 block an offshore, deepwater location near Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. The company recently doubled its estimates of gas production from KG-D6 block to 80 million standard cubic meters of gas a day, following an investment of $5.2 billion.

Mr Ambani said that after Andhra Pradesh - for the supply of natural gas - Reliance would focus on Tamil Nadu. In the next 2-3 years the company expects to bring piped natural gas to households in Tamil Nadu. The benefit to the consumers would be that natural gas would be available at the doorstep 25-30 per cent cheaper than LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), he said.

He also discussed with Mr Karunanidhi, another project to directly source agri-produce from farmers in South India for marketing. This was a logistics and marketing infrastructure initiative that would help the farmers, he said.

Reliance Industries had sought the State Government's support for both these initiatives. The Chief Minister has welcomed the move and emphasised that such projects should benefit the people, Mr Ambani said.

Retail chain

Officials concerned said that Reliance Industries expects to launch its retail-marketing project in Tamil Nadu with a chain of Reliance Fresh stores in Chennai by December-end. Initially, the company hopes to start with 10-12 stores. In the long term the company hopes to tie up with farmers for buy-back and marketing, they said.

The Union Minister for Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, who was present at the meeting, said that Reliance expects to launch the natural gas pipeline and supply in 2008-09. Supply of natural gas in Tamil Nadu not only means a cheaper alternative to LPG as fuel for households but also vehicles.

Reliance also plans to extend the natural gas pipeline to Kerala after it is launched in Tamil Nadu, he said.

More Stories on : Petroleum | Outlook | Infrastructure | Tamil Nadu | Reliance Industries Ltd

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