Reliance Industries Ltd plans to invest over Rs 4,500 crore (Rs 45 billion) in laying 5,895 km of product pipelines across the country as a precursor to begin the retailing of petrol and diesel.

RIL, which is setting up 5,849 petrol stations across the country, will lay 5,895 km of product pipelines to feed the retail network. A formal proposal to this effect has been submitted to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, official sources said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The Gas Transportation and Infrastructure Co Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, has proposed the Rs 1,640 crore (Rs 16.40 billion) Jamnagar-Patiala pipeline, Rs 1,780 crore (Rs 17.80 billion) Jamnagar-Kanpur pipeline, Rs 460 crore (Rs 4.60 billion) Goa-Hyderabad pipeline, Rs 325 crore (Rs 3.25 billion) Chennai-Bangalore pipeline, Rs 110 crore (Rs 1.10 billion) Kakinada-Vijayawada pipeline and the Rs 260 crore (Rs 2.60 billion) Haldia-Ranchi pipeline.

The 1,580-km Jamnagar-Patiala and 2,540-km Jamnagar-Kanpur pipelines would feed petrol stations in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh directly from the Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat.

RIL is most likely to transport petrol and diesel from its refinery in Gujarat to ports at Goa, Chennai, Kakinada and Haldia through ships. From the port cities, four different pipelines would evacuate the products for feeding the petrol stations in Karnataka, parts of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar and Jharkhand, they said.

Sources said RIL would construct the pipelines on common carrier principle with 25 per cent excess capacity than it needs, which would be offered to any firm willing to share the capacity on firm take or pay clause.

RIL proposes to finance the pipeline projects, likely to be commissioned in 36 months, on a 2:1 debt-equity ratio. However, the financing may vary depending upon how much capacity other interested parties are willing to share.

Other companies wanting to share the excess capacity would have to bear the pipeline construction cost in proportion to their interest, sources said.

The 19.3 million tonnes per annum capacity Jamnagar-Patiala pipeline would have tap-off points at Abu Road, Jaipur, Rewari, Patiala, Delhi, Ghaziabad and Muradabad, while the 9.78 million tonnes per annum capacity Jamnagar-Kanpur pipeline would have tap-off points at Ahmedabad, Indore, Bhopal, Kanpur, Kota, Gwalior, Nagpur and Raipur.

The 660-km Goa-Hyderabad pipeline, with a capacity of 1.98 MMTPA, would have tap-off points at Kolhapur, Sholapur and Hyderabad.

Vellore, Bangalore and Cuddapah would be the tap-off points of the 540-km Chennai-Bangalore pipeline, which would have a capacity of 1.18 MMTPA.

The Kakinada-Vijayawada pipeline of 200-km length and 0.14 MMTPA capacity would have only one tap-off point at Vijayawada, while the 375-km Haldia-Ranchi pipeline with 1.44 MMTPA capacity would have tap-off points at Jamshedpur and Ranchi.

Sources said RIL has called for the expression of interest from parties interested in sharing the 25 per cent excess capacity in the six pipelines by the first week of October.