GAIL India will invest about Rs 15,000 crore in the next two-three years in expanding its pipeline network. B C Tripathi, the company chairman and managing director, said GAIL was laying new pipelines to connect cities in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Haryana.

“Gas demand in northern India is expected to grow at the rate of 20-25 per cent over the next two-three years. To meet this demand, we are investing Rs 15,000 crore in laying new lines,” he said.

GAIL has planned pipelines to connect cities like Meerut, Saharanpur and Moradabad in UP, Dehradun in Uttarakhand, Bathinda and Nangal in Punjab and Panipat, Hissar and Gurgaon in Haryana by 2013. In addition, GAIL is expanding its 10,700 km of cross-country pipeline network. It is laying 5,000 km of pipeline to connect gas sources on the western coast to consumption centres in the north by 2013.

Of this, about 1,000 km of pipelines would be commissioned by year-end and 1,500 km would be added every year over the next two years. GAIL is also laying pipelines to connect to Bangalore, Mangalore and Kochi in next the three-four years.

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