Players can submit bids for pipeline projects on March 21

Media reports suggest that interested parties can submit bids for laying a 300-km gas pipeline connecting Reliance Industries’ coal bed methane production site in Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh, to Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh
on March 21.

Reports quoted a Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) official as saying that the board would start selling the bid documents on November 22.

While the deadline for purchasing the document is March 14, that for filing of bids is March 21. Earlier this year, Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure (RGTIL) had approached the board with an expression of interest to lay the pipeline.

In the expression of interest, RGTIL had said that expeditious execution is needed for this pipeline in the light of the planned coal bed methane gas production from the second half of 2014. RGTIL operates a 1,400-km gas pipeline network in the country.

According to its expression of interest, it had identified 73 potential consumers along the Shahdol-Phulpur route. These included JSW Ispat Steel, Indiabulls Power, Essar Oil, Nirma, Tata Chemicals, NTPC and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertiliser.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that C Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, would decided on the price of coal bed methane for Reliance Industries and Essar Oil. The price has not been approved for several months.