Patna: Residents in Patna are set to get piped natural gas (PNG) for cooking purposes from October-November this year. 
The service would be provided by GAIL India Limited in the city.
The government-controlled gas major has already laid the main pipeline for supplying gas to the city from Dobhi in Gaya, around 150km south of Patna, via Silao, approximately 70km southeast of the state capital, in Nalanda. It will now start laying the local pipeline through which PNG would be supplied in different localities of the city.
The supply network being laid in Bihar is part of the Jagdishpur-Haldia gas pipeline. The project entails laying 2,000km of gas pipeline that would touch Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal. The project has a cost component of Rs 11,000 crore.
Over 200km of the pipeline would be laid in Bihar in the first phase of the Jagdishpur-Haldia gas network. The three sections on which pipelines have to be laid in Bihar are Dobhi-Silao (83km), Silao-Naubatpur (65km) and Silao-Barauni (80km). Work up to Naubatpur, about 20km southwest of Patna, has been completed. GAIL has spent around Rs 1,500 crore so far on this and the same amount would be spent for completing the remaining work.
"We have finalised the tender process for laying a gas pipeline in the Patna town area and this work would be completed by October this year," a senior GAIL official told The Telegraph on Monday on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.
A total of 80km of the city's gas pipeline would be laid which would cover majority of the localities of Patna.
To begin with, the facility would be limited to few localities and it would take around three years to cover all areas of Patna. Though the GAIL official didn't mention the localities that would first get piped gas, he pointed out that the priority would be given to areas with more number of multi-storied apartments. "We would get more consumers in such places and it would help in economising the project cost," added the official.
As far as injecting gas to the laid pipeline is concerned, this would be done from October this year when the main pipeline would be connected with the injection point at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh.
GAIL has already started supplying gas up to Allahabad through its supply lines which bring gas from Bombay High and Dahej in Gujarat from where imported gas is pumped into the main line.
