GAIL India, which has had a monopoly in The gas transmission sector is set to see some tough competition in the coming days. While Reliance is poised to get into the trunk pipeline segment, British Gas is trying to get into the city gas distribution sector. GAIL's new chairman, shares his thoughts on how he plans to take the company ahead. What are GAIL's main priorities? Going by its business strategy, the focus areas are gas sourcing, transmission, marketing, processing, petrochemicals, globalisation and city gas distribution. We are focussing on sourcing of gas from indigenous finds and through LNG and cross border pipelines. We intend to develop the gas market by extending our gas grid from 5,600 km to 10,000 km. The city gas project is expected to rise from 6 to 45 by the end of the 11th five year Plan. What are GAIL's plans for acquiring an Exploration and Production (E&P) company abroad? GAIL has plans to strengthen its exploration and production activities. To become a formidable company, GAIL is exploring options - acquiring an E&P company is one such option. What are your Capex plans and how do you plan to fund it? GAIL's budgeted Capex plan for FY 06-07 is 2967.28 crore. This includes capital expenditure of 2579.58 crore on pipeline and other projects and 387.7 crore on petrochemical projects. This will be funded through internal reserves. What are your plans on city gas distribution? Will GAIL continue with its plans on fuel management? We have already established the business successfully in Mumbai, Delhi, Vadodara, Vijayawada, Agra, Lucknow, Kanpur. Till date GAIL has formed eight joint venture companies to implement city gas projects. The projects have had an impact on the pollution levels. GAIL is in the process of forming state-wise Joint Ventures with oil marketing companies to implement city gas projects in Rajasthan. What are GAIL's plans to diversify into telecom and what is the current status? Gailtel, the telecom service arm of GAIL, offers telecom services commercially to lead telecom operators across India. Gailtel owns and operates approximately 13,000 route km of fibre optic network, GAIL is evaluating various options to work out its future growth plans State two features of planning reflected in the above case
