The Hindu : Front Page : Mukesh Ambani discusses company plans with Karunanidhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 04, 2006
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Mukesh Ambani discusses company plans with Karunanidhi

Special Correspondent

Piped natural gas supply, marketing of farm produce proposed

— Photo: R. Ragu

COURTESY CALL: Reliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh D. Ambani with Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in Chennai on Sunday.

CHENNAI : Reliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh D. Ambani met Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Sunday and discussed the company's plans to supply piped natural gas to households, and procure and market farm produce in Tamil Nadu.

After meeting Mr. Karunanidhi at his Gopalapuram residence, Mr. Ambani said Tamil Nadu, after Andhra Pradesh, would be the focus for the company's piped gas project. The highlight of the project, for supplying natural gas to lakhs of households across the State, would be a nearly one-third reduction in the expenditure on domestic fuel for the user-families. "It can bring down the prices [compared to that of liquefied petroleum gas] by 25-30 per cent in south India," Mr. Ambani said during the brief interaction with the media.

He came to Chennai to "pay my respects to the Chief Minister," and added that there was a big opportunity to bring a large quantity of natural gas to the State. RIL proposes to create a southern corridor pipeline, by drawing gas from the Krishna Godavari basin in Andhra Pradesh, to benefit the people in the region.

During the meeting, he also briefed Mr. Karunanidhi about Reliance Industries' plan to "work with the farmers on a separate project" to procure and market their produce. Stating that he sought support for the two projects, Mr. Ambani said the Chief Minister welcomed them. On the likely investments on the project, he said they would be announced later. Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran said starting with major cities such as Chennai, RIL would supply the gas across the State through pipeline. An alternative to LPG, the "compressed natural gas" could also be used to run vehicles as in Delhi, he said.

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