The Jagdishpur-Haldia gas pipeline project has been stuck in the state for want of a deputy collector-rank officer.

Construction for the first phase of the 2,000km Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) pipeline was inaugurated on July 25 this year. However, work is yet to take off as the state has failed to provide a sub-divisional magistrate or deputy collector-rank officer to act as competent authority for land-related issues.

"We have contacted senior state government officials several times, requesting them to provide us an official on deputation as competent authority on land but to no avail," a senior GAIL official told The Telegraph. "We can tide over land ownership- and records-related work, identify the plots beneath which the pipeline would be laid and notify them only with his help."

The pipeline will carry gas from Haldia in Bengal to Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh via Jharkhand and Bihar. The entire project will cost around Rs 11,000 crore and will provide gas to fuel and fertiliser factories in places such as Barauni, Allahabad, and Jagdishpur. In the second phase, a 200km pipeline would be laid across Saran, Siwan, Gopalganj and West Champaran districts.

The general administration department has to provide the designated official, the GAIL official added. Senior company officials have written letters to the department in this regard over the past several months before and after the Assembly polls. A team of GAIL officials also met chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh in July, who had assured that an officer would be provided on deputation at the earliest.

"The result is that our huge pipes have arrived at dump sites. Field offices have been constructed, work procedure has been activated but we are unable to start actual work. The land issue is contributing to the delay," the GAIL official added.

Principal general administration secretary Amir Subhani said GAIL officials met him on Thursday over the issue. "We assured them that a competent authority to deal with land issues will be provided to them soon," Subhani said, adding that it would be done according to government rules.

According to the rules for executing such central projects, the state government notifies a competent authority for fixation of compensation for land and standing crop if any, their distribution, as well as hearing of land-related grievances.

Once completed, the right to user notification is issued by the Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas under provisions of Petroleum and Minerals Pipeline Act, 1962, which provides GAIL officials the right to use land for laying the pipeline.

The competent authority becomes even more necessary in a state like Bihar, where land records have not been updated for several decades and actual ownership has changed hands over generations.

"During the first phase, we will lay around 226km of pipeline on three stretches in Bihar but without the clearance of the land issues, our contractors will not be able to mobilise their machines, workers and other resources," the GAIL official said.

The three stretches are Dobhi-Silao (83km), Silao-Naubatpur (65km) and Silao-Barauni (80km). Unlike other projects in which land is acquired in totality, gas pipeline projects offer a lump sum to land owners to allow the use of land and the pipes are laid around a metre beneath the ground. The agreement prohibits the owners from raising any permanent structure on the 20m strip of land beneath which the pipeline travels.

THE JAGDISHPUR-HALDIA GAS PIPELINE AT A GLANCE

• Project conceptualised in 2007

• Launched on July 25, 2015

• Total length of pipeline: 2000km

• Total cost of project: Rs 11,000 crore

• Pipeline will run across Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, UP

• To be executed in two phases

• Bihar to have around 426km of the pipeline

• Targets to provide gas to states by 2018-end