The two pipelines – designed to link Karnataka to the Indian National Gas Grid – will each have a transmission capacity of 16 MMcm/d of gas.

The first project is a pipeline from Dabhol in Maharashtra to Bangalore, part of the 1,389 km Dabhol – Bangalore – Chennai pipeline project, which will involve an investment of Rs 4,543 crore ($US946 million) and will be carried out in two phases.

The first phase will comprise a 402 km section will be laid from Dabhol to Gokak, along with spur lines to Belgaum and Goa, and then a 570 km section from Gokak to Bangalore. The second phase comprises laying 417 km of spur lines to Ratnagiri, Kolhapur, Sangali, Bijapur, Dharwad, Davangere, Harihar and Tumkur.

The second project is the 1,114 km Kochi – Mangalore – Bangalore pipeline, which will involve a cost of Rs 3,032 crore ($US630 million).

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Both pipelines are scheduled for completion between 2011 and 2013, which will be co-ordinated with the availability of gas from Petronet LNG’s Kochi terminal and the Dabhol gas terminal.