All misunderstandings cleared; 2,500 households already registered

Mysore/Mysuru: After suffering initial glitches that revolved around road cutting and repairs, the ambitious project to supply Piped Natural Gas (PNG) to individual homes got a boost with the works being initiated at Vijayanagar I Stage in Chamaraja Assembly Segment last evening.

Three residential areas — Vijayanagar (Ward 20), Mahadeshwara Layout (Ward 3) and Kuvempunagar (Ward 47) — will be covered in this phase and initially, the works will be taken up at Ward 20 Vijayanagar I Stage.

AG&P Pratham India, the city gas distribution arm of the Singapore-headquartered AG&P Group, has bagged the tender to supply piped gas for Mysuru and the supply plant is being set up at Hebbal.

Over 15 kilometres of the pipeline will be laid at a cost of Rs. 20 crore and the works began with a ground-breaking ceremony performed on General K.S. Thimayya Road near Sri Yoganarasimhaswamy Temple.

MP Pratap Simha, Chamaraja MLA L. Nagendra, Corporators M.U. Subbaiah and Shivakumar, Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) Commissioner G. Lakshmikantha Reddy, Superintendent Engineer Mahesh, AG&P Pratham India head Arun Nayak and Karnataka cluster marketing head Nitin Huyilagol were present.

MDPE pipelines

MDPE (medium-density polyethylene) pipelines will be laid to supply gas to individual homes. Along with laying pipelines to individual houses, meters are also being fixed to measure consumption. Households that require connections will have to register first and for this, Aadhaar details and electricity bills are mandatory. Pipelines and meters will be installed free of cost and once installed, a deposit has to be paid.

According to top officials from AG&P Pratham India, nearly 2,500 households have registered so far and they plan to supply PNG to the registered households by Dasara. Gas meters have been installed in 550 houses and 1.5 km of the pipeline had already been drawn so far. The project will eventually cover the entire city for which nearly 600 km of pipeline has to be drawn.

Hebbal gas storage unit

The main pipeline for the project has already been laid from Bengaluru to Mysuru via Bidadi and it has reached Hebbal. From Hebbal, pipelines will have to be laid to several areas of the city. Over 28 km of pipeline has to be drawn along the Outer Ring Road to cover the adjoining residential areas of the Chamaraja Constituency.

The LCNG (Liquid to Compressed Natural Gas) Hebbal storage and supply plant is being set up with an investment of Rs. 600 crore and already giant white storage tanks have come up there.

Speaking on the occasion, Pratap Simha said that eventually, the gas pipeline project will cover the entire Mysuru city. “Yes, there was uncertainty due to certain concerns and misunderstandings. Corporators have been taken into confidence and their fears over the project implementation have been addressed. One of the main fears was who will repair the roads and cover the trenches after the pipelines are laid,” he said. “AG&P Pratham India will be responsible for it and the road repairs would closely follow the completion of the installation of pipes. The MCC has levied Rs. 1,856 per metre as a fee for cutting the roads and roadsides,” he added.