Indain Express 17.03.2010
hitarthpandya Tags : GAIL, energy Posted: Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010 at 0147 hrs
GAIL, VMC to finalise gas price, assets value
Vadodara: Residents to get piped gas connections in six months
A Crucial meeting between top officials of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) and the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) will take place next week to decide on the pricing issue.
As many as three meetings have taken place between GAIL and VMC officials so far. On March 23 last year, both partners signed an MoU and formed a Joint Venture in October to provide the entire city with piped natural gas.
GAIL has 26 per cent share and the VMC 24 per cent — the remaining 50 per cent coming from the banking and financial institutions.
At the time of signing the MoU, both GAIL and the VMC had said that residents will be provided with the connections within six months.
Later, a steering committee was formed to prepare a draft project and decide on the time for the completion of the project.
There are more than 3.5 lakh households which are yet to receive piped gas connections. With this venture the entire city will be covered.
In 1972, the VMC had become the first municipal corporation in the country to provide piped gas to its citizens. It had bought 50,000 cubic metres gas from GAIL. At present, the total network of the pipeline in the city is 527 km, catering to 73,700 domestic consumers and 2,735 commercial consumers.
Shailesh Naik, in-charge of VMC’s Gas Project Department told The Indian Express: “The project is moving in the right direction and we have already discussed several key issues during the meeting of the steering committee. In our previous meetings, we have discussed the models prepared by both VMC and GAIL as also on the network expansion.”
But next week’s meeting is important as the crucial issue of pricing is expected to be discussed. The price parity was expected to be one of the major issues as the existing customers are paying charges which would be hiked in a phased manner.
Naik added: “We will discuss two major issues, one on the price of gas and secondly we will decide on the assets value. Hopefully, we will be able to finalise both on the same day.”
Incidentally, the Opposition party had made a major hue and cry about the assets value of the existing set up during the special General Board meeting called after the JV was signed.
The Opposition members alleged that the value of the assets should be done in a way that they are not sold at the price of scrap.
