9JULY 2024TOP STORIESURJA GANGA GAS PIPELINE COMPLETION DELAYED TO MARCH 2025: SAYS GAILINDIA BECOMES THE 3RD LARGEST AUTO MARKET AFTER CHINA & USThe completion of the 'Urja Ganga' gas pipeline, an extensive project valued at 12,940 crore, has been postponed by nine months and is now expected to be finished by March 2025, as announced by GAIL (India) Ltd. This pipeline is considered to be India's most significant venture in delivering eco-friendly fuel to the country's eastern regions.Originally, the 3,306-kilometre Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra pipeline was scheduled to be operational by June 2024. However, due to a delay in securing the right of use (RoU), the timeline has been adjusted, with completion now projected for March 2025, according to a disclosure made by GAIL in a stock exchange filing.In October 2016, work on laying a pipeline from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal, Bokaro in Jharkhand and Dhamra in Odisha began.The line was extended to Guwahati in Assam from Barauni in Bihar, a length of 726 km, to take the fuel to hereto-unconnected states in the eastern region.The Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra Pipeline (JHBDPL), popularly called the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga pipeline, is to supply gas to the eastern states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal.GAIL, the firm executing the pipeline, said its board of directors in a meeting on June 28 approved the revision of the completion schedule. The completion schedule for the 240-km Dhamra-Haldia pipeline has also been revised from June 2024 to March 2025, it added. India outran Japan in automotive sales last year for the first time and became third largest auto market in the world, according to Nikkei Asia on Friday. The country's sales of new vehicles accounted to at least 4.25 million units, topping the 4.2 million sold in Japan. Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers stated that new vehicle delivered in India totaled 4.13 million between January and November 2022. Adding December's sales volume reported on Sunday by Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker, brings the total to roughly 4.25 million units, as per ANI reports.India's sales volume is expected to further rise with the inclusion of pending fourth-quarter sales figures for commercial vehicles, along with year-end results yet to be released by Tata Motors and other automakers.Around 4.4 million vehicles were sold in India in 2018 but the volume dipped below 4 million in 2019, primarily due to the credit crunch that hit the nonbank sector that year. It further plummeted below 3-million mark in 2020 due to Covid-associated lockdown. According to the Nikkei Asia, gasoline powered vehicles, including hybrid vehicles, accounted for most of the new autos sold in India last year. It added that electric vehicles hardly have a presence and autos for the Indian market are seen having fewer semiconductors than those sold in advanced economies. The report also stated that the relaxations in the automotive chip crunch in 2022 provided an opportunity for a recovery. Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and other Indian automotive manufacturers experienced growth in sales last year.
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