KSEBOA - KSEB Officers' Association

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The Supreme Court has allowed public sector GAIL (India) Ltd to lay a pipeline for transportation of natural gas to Dadri power project that will supply electricity for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi next year. The pipeline, which will transport regasified liquefied natural gas from Vijaipur to Dadri, will also supply gas to Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.The 505-km pipeline, with a maximum diameter of 48 inches, will pass through Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Central Empowered Committee (CEC) had recommended that the apex court may permit underground pipeline over a distance of two km in the National Chambal Sanctuary at Morena and 3.5 km in the Ramsagar sanctuary subject to certain conditions.

A special forest bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan allowed the public sector to go ahead with its Rs 3,306-crore project, which required laying of the pipeline through wildlife sanctuary areas in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, on certain conditions imposed by the CEC.
The bench passed the order after GAIL undertook to comply with the recommendations given by the apex court-appointed committee. Besides, it said the original topography of the area would be restored and the safety norms prescribed by the Oil Industry Safety Directorate would be strictly adhered to.

It recommended that GAIL should deposit five per cent of the estimated cost of more than Rs 36 crore (ie Rs 1.8 crore) in the compensatory afforestation fund for the conservation and protection works in the sanctuaries.

Amicus curie, Harish Salve, appearing for CEC, said that the project was in public interest and the adverse impact on the protected area was containable. He further submitted that the project had been cleared by the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife.

GAIL had moved an application in the apex court seeking permission to lay down the Vijaipur-Dadri pipeline parallel to its existing gas rehabilitation project, which had been acquired under the Petroleum and Minerals Pipeline (Acquisition of Right of User Inland) Act, 1962.It further said that the pipeline would be laid underneath the river bed without disturbing major rivers falling enroute besides the flora and fauna.

Source- Business line