Kandla-Gorakhpur LPG pipeline: Land-use notices in UP, Gujarat

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas issued two notifications on 30 October 2026 declaring its intention to acquire land-use rights in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat for IHB Limited’s Kandla-Gorakhpur LPG pipeline. The notifications concern land specified in their schedules and allow interested persons to submit written objections within 21 days of the Gazette copies becoming available to the general public.

The Uttar Pradesh notification, S.O. 5918(E), includes plots in Phulpur tehsil of Prayagraj district. The Gujarat notification, S.O. 5926(E), covers scheduled land in Halvad taluka of Morbi district. Both were published in the Gazette of India on the date they were issued.

These are declarations of an intention to acquire a right to use the specified land for an underground pipeline, rather than announcements that the acquisition process has been completed. Both notifications identify IHB Limited as the company implementing the project.

What the land-use notifications provide

The ministry invoked Section 3(1) of the Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Act, 1962. As applied in these notices, the provision allows the Centre to declare its intention to acquire a “right of user” in land: a right to use the land for the pipeline purpose described in the notification.

The subject of the notices is therefore the proposed acquisition of that use right, not an outright purchase of the scheduled plots. The ministry states in each notification that the Centre considers laying the pipeline necessary in the public interest and considers acquisition of the land-use rights necessary for that purpose.

The objection provision applies to any person interested in land described in the relevant schedule. It is not worded as an invitation to the public at large to comment on the entire pipeline project.

The notices also distinguish the date of publication from the event that starts the objection period. The period runs from when Gazette copies containing the notification are made available to the general public. Neither notice specifies a separate calendar date as the final day for objections.

Plots in Prayagraj and Morbi

The Uttar Pradesh notification’s schedule identifies land by village, survey or block number, and area. The available schedule pages include Narai, Thanapur, Jagbandhanpur, Manikapur, Lodipur and Habibpur in Phulpur tehsil, among other villages.

The entries specify the affected area against individual plot numbers rather than describing whole villages as subject to the proposed acquisition. For example, the ministry’s schedule records 69 square metres against survey number 332 in Narai and 32 square metres against survey number 346 in the same village.

For the Uttar Pradesh land, the notification names Abul Kalam, the competent authority for IHB Limited’s Kandla-Gorakhpur LPG pipeline project in Lucknow, as the recipient of written objections. The competent authority is the official designated in the notice to receive those objections.

The Gujarat schedule names five villages: Juna Devaliya, Nava Ghanshyamgadh, Nava Amarapar, Ishanpur and Malaniyad. It similarly sets out survey identifiers and areas, using separate columns for hectares, ares and square metres. An are is a unit equal to 100 square metres.

In Nava Ghanshyamgadh, for example, survey number 383/1 is listed with an area of 12 ares and 9 square metres. The Ishanpur entry, survey number 539/P17, records 7 ares and 20 square metres, according to the Gujarat notification.

For these Gujarat plots, the ministry names Dharmik Vinodbhai Dobariya, Prant Officer, Morbi, as the competent authority to whom interested persons may submit written objections.

A land process within an authorised pipeline project

The new notifications concern land-use rights for a project whose regulatory authorisation dates back to 31 December 2018. On that date, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, or PNGRB, granted authorisation for the Kandla-Gorakhpur petroleum and petroleum products pipeline carrying liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG.

PNGRB’s authorisation was addressed to the proposed consortium of Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, with Indian Oil as lead partner. IHB Limited’s project description identifies the company as a joint venture of those three businesses.

The documents serve different purposes. PNGRB’s authorisation sets terms for laying, building, operating or expanding the pipeline. The ministry’s new notifications identify land where the Centre intends to acquire use rights and provide an opportunity for objections to that proposed acquisition.

PNGRB’s authorisation specified a system capacity of 8.25 million tonnes per annum. That is an authorised capacity figure, not evidence of the volume being transported now.

IHB Limited’s undated project description says the pipeline is intended to source LPG from import terminals at Kandla, Dahej and Pipavav, and from the Koyali and Bina refineries. It describes direct links to 22 LPG bottling plants: three in Gujarat, six in Madhya Pradesh and 13 in Uttar Pradesh.

Project dimensions and completion status

The project descriptions contain different length figures. PNGRB’s authorisation documents list a total pipeline length of 2,757 km, while IHB Limited’s undated description gives 2,805 km. Neither the two new land notifications nor the company description explains the difference, so the figures should not be treated as interchangeable.

The company description also puts the project’s investment at Rs 10,088 crore. That figure is the company’s stated project investment, not an expenditure total established by the new notifications.

PNGRB’s original authorisation allowed a maximum of 36 months from its issue for commissioning. That was the original regulatory timetable; it does not establish the project’s operating status in October 2026. The ministry’s new notifications announce a land-use acquisition step, but do not state a commissioning date or whether the entire Kandla-Gorakhpur pipeline is operational.