Gas pipeline: HC stays tender notification.

Justice Vilas V Afzulpurkar of the Hyderabad High Court recently stayed the tender notification issued by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) to lay a 525-kilometre-long pipeline from Kakinada to Nellore to supply gas. The judge was dealing with a petition filed by the Andhra Pradesh Gas Distribution Corporation Ltd. (APGDC) challenging the public notice issued by the PNGRB in July 2015, which was amended by addendum in public notice issued in September 2015, inviting tenders to lay the pipeline as illegal.

It was averred that AP Gas Distribution Company, a joint venture of the State of AP and GAIL, already got clearance to lay the pipeline from Kakinada to Srikakulam. It proposed that it would lay another pipeline from Vijayawada to Nellore. The court was told that the Chief Minister of AP wrote several letters to PNGRB, saying that new pipeline would not only be a waste of money but also it would take a lot of time to get the clearances and right of way through paddy fields. The court was requested to stay the process of tenders as it will put burden on the exchequer. The respondents were directed to file counter affidavits.

THE HINDU