First congratulations to India for addding another INSAT communication sattellite. Next year we will be launching INSAT from Sriharikota. That day we can really celebrate. One more good news is that we will have our own cryogenic engines. That is another gung-ho news. We should really celebrate when that happens.
| RIL pledges gas to AP first, gets SEZ in return |
| Hyderabad, Dec. 22: The State government will give Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) 20,000 acres of land near Shamshabad on the city outskirts to set up a special economic zone (SEZ). The decision came after Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy secured an assurance from the company�s representatives that RIL would supply Krishna-Godavari basin gas first to the State before taking it elsewhere. After meeting an RIL delegation headed by its president, oil and gas division, P.M.S. Prasad on Thursday, the Chief Minister told officials of the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation to identify land near Shamshabad close to the international airport. Mr Prasad gave a presentation of RIL�s operations in the K-G basin where the company has struck an estimated 16 trillion cubic feet of gas. He sought land to set up a special economic zone that RIL could develop into an industrial area. He expressed RIL�s interest to set up a petrochemical complex in the State and said it could come up in the SEZ if it had all the facilities, he said. Mr Prasad said enough gas was available in the K-G basin and assured that RIL would take out gas outside the State only after meeting AP�s requirements. RIL is building a 48-inch pipeline from Kakinada to Hyderabad and would extend it to its refinery at Jamnagar. The pipeline would run 565 km in the State and cover 56 mandals in seven districts, he said. RIL was keen to undertake city gas distribution projects in the State. RIL would promote and develop city gas networks in districts and towns like Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Vijayawada, Guntur, Rajahmundry, Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Medak, Warangal and Nalgonda in the first phase, he said. Mr Prasad said RIL was contemplating the setting up of a bio-diesel production plant. In the first phase, RIL proposed to create capacity to produce 1,00,000 tonnes of bio-diesel at Kakinada by 2011. It proposed to establish captive plantations of jatropha, which produces oil for bio-diesel, on its own farms and through contract farming in 1,00,000 hectares in the State. The Chief Minister reiterated that RIL should ensure adequate gas to the State before taking it to other States. Production should begin by July 2008, he said. �We know that you are under tremendous pressure from other States. Since the gas reserves are in our region you have to meet our requirement first,� he said. He said though the Gas Regulatory Authority would decide the price of gas, his government wanted that oil companies reduce the production cost by using modern technology so that LPG is available at about Rs 200 per cylinder. Dr Reddy offered land to RIL to raise jatropha plantations and suggested that use the PPA model through the AP Forest Development Corporation. He assured full support from the government both for gas development and bio-diesel production. |
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