GAIL, a state-owned natural gas company, has announced a nine-month delay in the completion of the ambitious Urja Ganga gas pipeline project. 

As reported by the Business Standard on Sunday, June 30, the project, initially targeted for completion by June 2024, is now expected to be finished by March 2025 due to challenges in obtaining right-of-use (RoU) permissions along the pipeline route. 

"The completion schedule has been revised from June 2024 to March 2025 due to delay in right of use (RoU) availability," GAIL said in a stock exchange filing.

The 3,306-kilometer Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra pipeline, also known as the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga pipeline, aims to bring natural gas to eastern India for the first time.

Despite the delay, construction on most of the pipeline is already complete, and natural gas has begun flowing to many cities along the route. Traditionally, natural gas access in India was limited to western and northern regions due to a lack of pipelines.

The Urja Ganga project, initiated in October 2016, aimed to bridge this gap by establishing a pipeline network from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to Dhamra in Odisha. 

The project was further extended to reach Guwahati in Assam to provide access to natural gas for previously unconnected states in the eastern region.

When completed, the project is expected to supply gas to Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal. GAIL's board of directors approved the revision of the completion schedule on June 28. The completion date for the 240-kilometre Dhamra-Haldia section was also pushed back to March 2025.