Bengal is set to reap the benefit of a natural gas-led industrial development with the state finally becoming part of the national gas grid, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.
Inaugurating a 348-kilometre trunk pipeline connecting Dhobi (near Gaya) to Durgapur, Modi said the availability of natural gas would help revive old units and set up plants, apart from providing clean fuel to the transport sector and piped gas connection at home.
The pipeline has been laid by GAIL India Ltd at an investment of Rs 2,400 crore. The PM urged the Bengal government and GAIL to expedite the remaining part of the work, extending the pipeline from Durgapur to Calcutta and then Haldia.
“The Centre has taken one nation, one grid project. This will be a big movement. In this Union budget, we have created a mission to get hydrogen as clean fuel,” Modi said from Haldia.
The pipeline will allow the state-run fertiliser plant at Sindri, Jharkhand, and a private plant at Panagarh, Bengal, to function to its full potential.
Modi was at Haldia to inaugurate four projects, totalling Rs 4,700 crore, belonging to public sector GAIL, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and NHAI. The visit comes a few months before the Assembly polls in the state.
The projects include a LPG import terminal set up by BPCL for Rs 1,100 crore, a catalytic de-waxing unit to produce base oil for lubricants by IOC for Rs 1,019 crore and a rail overbridge to ease congestion of port traffic at Ranichak, Haldia. While the BPCL plant and bridge was commissioned on Sunday, along with the GAIL pipeline, the IOC unit will be ready by 2023.
“The four projects will help in ease of doing business and living in the east, and make Haldia a major centre for export and import,” Modi said.
Modi also weaved the dream of a port-led development for Haldia and Bengal days before the poll dates are announced. “Our efforts will be directed towards making the state a premier one in trading and business activity in the country. For this, port-led development is feasible and Haldia will play an important role in it,” he said.
”Haldia will help the East to become self-reliant in the energy sector. This will in turn help in the aim of a self-reliant India,” Modi added.
