GAIL, the firm executing the pipeline, said its board of directors in a meeting on June 28 approved the revision of the completion schedule.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“The construction of the ₹12,940-crore ‘Urja Ganga’ gas pipeline, India’s most ambitious project taking environment-friendly fuel to eastern parts of the country, has been delayed by nine months and will now be completed by March 2025,” State-owned GAIL (India) Limited said.

The 3,306 km Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra pipeline was originally targeted for completion by June 2024. But due to “delay in right of use (RoU) availability”, the completion schedule has been revised “from June 2024 to March 2025”, GAIL said in a stock exchange filing.

The bulk of the pipeline has already been constructed and gas has started to flow in most cities along the route.

Traditionally, natural gas was available for use as fuel to generate electricity, make fertilizer or turn into CNG and cooking gas only in the western and northern parts of the country, as pipelines taking the fuel from source to users were limited to these parts.

In October 2016, work on laying a pipeline from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal, Bokaro in Jharkhand and Dhamra in Odisha began.

The line was extended to Guwahati in Assam from Barauni in Bihar, a length of 726 km, to take the fuel to hereto-unconnected States in the eastern region.

The Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra Pipeline (JHBDPL), popularly called the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga pipeline, is to supply gas to the eastern States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal.

GAIL, the firm executing the pipeline, said its board of directors in a meeting on June 28 approved the revision of the completion schedule. “The completion schedule for the 240-km Dhamra-Haldia pipeline has also been revised from June 2024 to March 2025,” it added.

The company on May 10, 2019, stated that it has completed awards of all major contracts worth ₹10,500 crore for pipeline supply and laying of the integrated 3,400-km Jagdishpur-Haldia and Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL) and Barauni-Guwahati Pipeline (BGPL) pipeline.

The government provided 40% viability gap funding amounting to ₹5,176 crore for execution of JHBDPL. For the Barauni-Guwahati pipeline, a 60% viability gap funding, amounting to ₹5,559 crore, has been provided by the government.

The Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga pipeline will connect all the geographical areas (more than 90) spread over Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and further to the northeastern region of India.

When the project is fully completed, the northeastern/eastern part of India will become an integral part of the gas-based economy with the twin benefits of the cheapest gas transportation through Urja Ganga and gas pricing reforms.

Under the unified tariff regulations recently notified by sector regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), transportation tariff has been cut by about 50% to ₹99.90 per million British thermal units for the eastern parts, helping make the clean fuel more affordable.

The pipeline has already started feeding seven city gas distribution (CGD) projects in Varanasi, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, and Cuttack. The pipeline also connects the refineries, located at Barauni, Haldia, and Paradip. The JHBDPL has a transmission capacity of 16 million cubic metres of natural gas a day.

Stock exchanges have slapped fines on state-owned oil and gas firms including IOC, ONGC and GAIL for their failure to meet listing requirements
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Stock exchanges have slapped fines on state-owned oil and gas firms including IOC, ONGC and GAIL for their failure to meet listing requirements of having a requisite number of independent directors and women directors.

In separate filings, the companies detailed the fines imposed by the BSE and NSE but were quick to point out that appointment of directors was done by the government and they had no role in it.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was slapped a ₹3.36 lakh fine, while Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) was asked to pay ₹5.36 lakh fine.

Gas utility GAIL was slapped ₹2.71 lakh fine, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) ₹3.59 lakh, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) ₹3.6 lakh, Oil India Ltd ₹5.37 lakh and a fine of ₹5.37 lakh was imposed on Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL).

Except for IOC which was slapped with the fine for not having the required one woman director on the board, all the companies were fined for violating the norm of having the required number of independent directors.

IOC said the power to appoint directors (including independent and women directors) vests with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India.

“And hence the non-appointment of women independent directors on the Board during the quarter ended June 30, 2023 was not due to any negligence / fault by the company,” it said. “Accordingly, Indian Oil should not be held liable to pay the fines and the same should be waived-off”.

IOC said it regularly takes up the issue with the ministry, for appointment of requisite number of independent directors (including Woman independent director), to ensure compliance with corporate governance norms.

“We would also like to inform that the company had received similar notices from the BSE and NSE in the past imposing fines and waiver requests from the company was considered favourably by the exchanges,” it said.

HPCL made a similar filing and cited past record of stock exchanges waiving such fines.

ONGC said it has requested the government for nomination of the requisite number of independent directors on the board of the company.

“Since the appointment of directors is beyond control of the company, request letters have been submitted to stock exchanges for waiving off the fine levied,” ONGC said.

BPCL said it had complied with the requirements for the financial year 2022-23 and till April 30, 2023.

But the appointment of a full-time directors with effect from May 1, 2023 led to BPCL having five whole-time Directors, two nominee directors of the government and six independent directors.

As per norm, BPCL should have had seven independent directors – equal to the executive directors (five whole-time directors and two government nominee directors).

BPCL said it has “requested the Government of India from time to time for the nomination of one independent director. As the directors are appointed after receipt of nomination from Government of India. BPCL has no control over the appointment of Directors.”

The firm said it will be approaching BSE Limited and National Stock Exchange of India Limited for waiver of the fines. “Similar letters were received earlier from the stock exchanges for which waiver request was made by BPCL and the same was considered favorably by the stock exchanges,” the filing said.

Oil India Ltd (OIL) said the non-compliance was beyond the control of the company as it is a government enterprise and directors are appointed by the administrative ministry, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

MRPL said it is following up with the government from time to time for appointing the required number of directors on its board.

GAIL said, “all the directors on the board of GAIL (including independent directors) are nominated/appointed by the Government of India. As such, appointments are outside the purview/control of the GAIL’s management.”