Indian gas company GAIL plans to start works on the 2,050 km Jagdishpur – Phulpur - Haldia natural gas pipeline which will serve as the ‘Energy Highway’ to carry the efficient and environment-friendly fuel to West Bengal (745 km), Bihar (621 km), Jharkhand (339 km) and Uttar Pradesh (345 km). The pipeline project will connect Eastern India with the national gas grid. The pipeline will lead to setting up of City Gas Networks in 17 major cities of the region, i.e, Varanasi, Allahabad, Patna, Gaya, Chhapra, Siwan, Gopalganj, Mujaffarpur, Bettiah, Bhagalpur, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Asansol, Durgapur and Kolkata. Thus, residents of these major cities can enjoy the convenience of piped natural gas (PNG) that directly reaches households and the economical compressed natural gas (CNG) for vehicles. The Jagdishpur – Phulpur – Haldia pipeline will consist of 922 km main line and 1,128 km spur lines and feeder lines. The estimated investment for the Jagdishpur – Phulpur - Haldia pipeline project is about Rs 10,000 crores (US$1.65bn). The first phase of the pipeline will have a capacity of 16 mcm/d (5.8 bcm/year) which would be augmented to 32 mcm/d (11.7 bcm/year) in the second phase.