Paradip, India’s First Piped-Gas Port Township: Why Dharmendra Pradhan Was the Key Architect| Special Report

Bhubaneswar: When Union Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated the Rs20-crore Piped Natural Gas (PNG) network at Paradip Port on Friday, the port achieved a distinction that older and larger Indian ports had not: its residential township became the first among the country’s 12 major ports to receive piped gas.

The milestone at Paradip, however, did not emerge overnight. The final connection of gas pipelines to 546 residential quarters at Madhuban was the last stage of an infrastructure chain that had been built over nearly a decade.

At the centre of that chain was a series of decisions taken during the tenure of former Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

From pushing the eastern India gas grid to developing a pipeline spur towards Paradip and expanding the City Gas Distribution network, the infrastructure architecture was put in place years before the Paradip Port Authority took the final step of piping gas into its township.

The story, therefore, is best understood through a timeline.

2016: The eastern India gas grid gets its push

The first major building block came with the Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline project, popularly known as the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga.

Under Pradhan’s tenure as Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, the long-delayed eastern gas pipeline project was pushed as part of the larger effort to expand the natural gas network into the energy-starved eastern states.

The objective was to create the basic gas highway that eastern India, including Odisha, had long lacked.

Without that trunk pipeline, there could be no city gas network at Paradip and no PNG connection inside the port township.

July 2017: Dhamra LNG Terminal foundation laid

The second major piece of the energy architecture came on July 8, 2017, when the foundation stone for the Dhamra LNG Terminal was laid.

The terminal was designed to become a major gas entry point for eastern India. Imported LNG could arrive at Dhamra, be converted back into natural gas and then injected into the pipeline grid.

Thus, even as the Urja Ganga pipeline was being developed to carry gas across the eastern region, Dhamra was being developed as a major supply source for that network.

March-December 2017: The city gas and Paradip connection

The next layer was local distribution.

As the government expanded the City Gas Distribution framework, Jagatsinghpur district, where Paradip is located, became part of the expanding gas distribution geography.

BPCL emerged as the key company for building the local gas distribution network.

Then came a particularly important development for Paradip. On December 17, 2017, Pradhan laid the foundation stone for the natural gas spur linking the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Paradip region.

This was the physical extension that brought the national gas highway closer to Paradip.

The chain was now beginning to take shape: a trunk gas grid for eastern India, a supply terminal at Dhamra, a spur towards Paradip and a City Gas Distribution framework for local consumers.

2018 onwards: Gas infrastructure and port modernisation move in parallel

While the gas infrastructure was expanding, Paradip Port was simultaneously moving through an aggressive modernisation phase.

The port had the financial strength to pursue infrastructure beyond cargo handling alone. With a net surplus exceeding Rs1,860 crore and its position among India's top cargo-handling ports, Paradip Port Authority had the financial capacity to invest in modernising its township and utility infrastructure.

The port was also pursuing its Smart Port and Green Port objectives.

This is where Paradip gained an advantage.

The gas infrastructure outside the port was being created through the national pipeline and city gas network. Inside the port, a financially strong Port Authority was capable of investing in the last-mile infrastructure needed to bring that gas into residential homes.

In effect, the two developments converged: the national energy grid was approaching Paradip at the same time that the Port Authority had both the resources and the modernisation agenda to make use of it.

April-May 2023: Dhamra begins receiving and supplying gas

The next major step came in 2023.

On April 1, 2023, the Dhamra LNG Terminal received its first commissioning cargo. Full commercial operations began on May 6, 2023.

The 5-million-tonne-per-annum terminal strengthened eastern India's gas supply infrastructure and provided a major regional source that could feed the pipeline network.

The wider gas chain was now operational.

Imported LNG could reach Dhamra, be regasified and transported through the expanding pipeline system towards consumers and industrial centres across the region.

For Paradip, the essential upstream infrastructure was no longer merely on paper.

2024: Paradip Port and BPCL move to the township stage

With the regional gas infrastructure in place, Paradip Port Authority moved to the final stage: taking gas inside the residential township.

The PPA partnered with BPCL to develop the local PNG network in Madhuban.

The project involved the construction of the distribution network and the supporting infrastructure required to reduce and regulate pipeline pressure before gas could be safely supplied to households.

This was the crucial difference between having a gas pipeline near a city and having PNG reach homes inside a dedicated port township.

2026: The final link is completed

By July 2026, the Madhuban de-compression infrastructure was ready and the first PNG supply began reaching residential complexes.

On Friday, the completed Rs20-crore Phase-I network was formally inaugurated, covering 546 residential quarters in the Paradip Port township.

That made Paradip the first major port in India to extend PNG connectivity to its dedicated residential township.

The achievement was significant not because other major ports do not have access to natural gas in their surrounding metropolitan regions. Cities around ports such as Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata already have much larger gas infrastructure.

Paradip's distinction lies in integrating the gas supply directly into the administrative residential ecosystem of a major port.

The final outcome of a long infrastructure chain

The sequence explains why Paradip was able to move ahead.

2016: The eastern India gas grid gets a major push through Urja Ganga.

2017: The Dhamra LNG Terminal is initiated as a major gas supply source, while the City Gas Distribution framework and the Paradip pipeline spur begin taking shape.

2018 onwards: Gas infrastructure expands alongside Paradip Port's modernisation and green initiatives.

2023: Dhamra begins commercial operations, strengthening the regional gas supply chain.

2024: Paradip Port Authority and BPCL begin the final township-level rollout.

2026: The Madhuban PNG network is commissioned and inaugurated.

The final ribbon-cutting may have taken place in 2026, but the architecture behind the project was laid years earlier.

That is where Dharmendra Pradhan's role becomes central. The PNG network inaugurated at Paradip is the visible end of a much larger energy infrastructure chain built during his tenure as Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister.

The Port Authority supplied the final financial push and the last-mile township infrastructure. BPCL developed the local distribution system. Dhamra provided the regional energy gateway. GAIL's wider pipeline network created the transmission route.

But the sequence that connected these pieces – from the eastern gas grid and Dhamra LNG Terminal to the Paradip spur and local City Gas Distribution network – was shaped during the period when Pradhan was leading the petroleum ministry.

And that is how Paradip, backed by both the financial heft of one of India's strongest major ports and a decade-long energy infrastructure build-out, reached the finish line before many of the country's older and bigger ports. 

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