The first stretch of Dahej-Panvel-Dabhol pipeline, which will feed natural gas to the beleaguered Dabhol power project in Maharashtra, has been commissioned.

The 100-km Dahej to Surat length of the pipeline was commissioned by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora with a 'gas-in' at Dahej, a press release issued by GAIL, the company laying the pipeline, said.

With gas flowing from Dahej, where Petronet LNG imports and regassifies liquefied natural gas, into the first stretch of the 576-km Dahej-Panvel-Dabhol pipeline, decks have also been cleared for resumption of the work on a 12-km stretch of the pipeline in Chourasiya Taluka in Surat district.

But for the small stretch of 12-km, almost all of the pipeline has been laid. Work on the 12-km length was stalled as Gujarat government opposed the project on grounds that the gas pricing formula worked out for Dabhol would result in rise in price of gas for industries in the state.

The Centre has decided to pool the price of spot LNG being imported for Dabhol with the long-term cheaper gas price, resulting in price of gas for the power plant coming down but the same for industries going up.

The GAIL release said work on the 12-km stretch would resume "with active support from the Gujarat Government and the union ministry of petroleum and natural gas".

The company is laying a 30-inch diameter, 576-km long Dahej-Panvel-Dabhol pipeline at an estimated investment of Rs 3,200 crore (Rs 32 billion). The pipeline has a design capacity of 12 million standard cubic meters per day, it said.