DHAMRA (ODISHA): In a boost to the NDA Government’s well-worn look east policy, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday laid the foundation stone for a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) regasification terminal at Dhamra Port in Bhadrak district.
The first ever LNG terminal in the eastern India region to be built at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore by a joint venture of Indian Oil Corporation, GAIL (India) Ltd and Adani Group would have a capacity of five million metric tonnes per annum.
Though Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was supposed to lay the foundation, he skipped the event owing to mud-slinging between the BJP and BJD, which alleged that the ceremony was mere a political event.
Other ministers and MLAs of the ruling party in the State also did not attend.
Addressing the gathering Pradhan said the terminal will play a significant role in the development of eastern India.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has charted a roadmap for the growth of eastern region of the country which can’t be developed without integration of its eastern arm into the mainstream economy. The LNG terminal is a gift from the Centre to change the narrative of Odisha and bring back its past glory,” he said.
India is transitioning to a gas-based economy with 50 per cent of gas being imported through terminals located in Gujarat and Maharashtra. In eastern India, Dhamra will have the distinction of hosting the first LNG terminal, which will import gas from countries like US and Qatar, he said.
The Petroleum Minister also enumerated the multiple benefits that will accrue to Odisha and the region with the terminal acting as a source of employment and investment opportunities, along with access to clean fuel.
“Dhamra will be a vital link in connecting eastern India to the gas infrastructure of the country and will also benefit neighbouring countries. Natural gas from the LNG terminal will also be an important supply source to the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Project. The work would start soon and hopefully it would be completed in next three years,” he said.
The natural gas from Dhamra terminal would also be supplied to various city gas distribution (CGD) networks coming up in cities like Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Ranchi, Bokaro, Jamshedpur and Kolkata. The CGD networks would, in turn, cater to the requirements of piped gas for households, CNG for automobiles and clean fuel requirements of commercial establishments and industries, Pradhan added.
Chairman of Indian Oil Sanjiv Singh said the terminal will usher in a green wave of growth and development by making available clean and economically viable natural gas to fuel various sectors. The use of natural gas will also help in reducing the carbon footprints in Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal in a big way, he said
While CMD of GAIL BC Tripathi reiterated GAIL’s commitment for the LNG project, CEO of Adani Port and SEZ Ltd Karan Adani said Adani Group endeavours to build a world-class project that will make Odisha proud and galvanise an entire ecosystem of job creation.
The LNG terminal would also meet the gas requirements of three oil refineries of Indian Oil situated in Barauni, Haldia and Paradip. The three fertiliser plants at Barauni, Sindri and Gorakhpur, which are being revived by the Centre, will also benefit from the terminal.
Regasified LNG from the terminal will be transported through this 2,540-km-long Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra pipeline (JHBDPL) being developed at a cost of Rs 12,940 crore which is likely to be completed by December 2020.