Five public sector oil companies on Friday signed a joint venture agreement for executing the North-East Natural Gas Pipeline Grid (N-ENGPG) project under the initiative of the Urja Ganga Gas Pipeline Project. According to a statement issued by Numaligarh Refinery Limited, an Assam based public sector company, the agreement was signed by IOCL Executive Director (Project) H K Singh, ONGC General Manager R Kaul, GAIL Chief General Manager (PD) D M Rao, OIL Chief General Manager (PL) B K Mishra and NRL Senior Chief General Manager (Corporate Affairs) A K Bhattacharya. The Gas Grid Project will connect all NE States to the National Gas Grid through Barauni-Guwahati Gas Pipeline being laid by GAIL. To be developed at the cost of Rs 6000 crore, the estimated length of the proposed gas grid will be around 1500 km, the statement said, adding that the tentative time schedule for commissioning the project will be four years, including one year for pre-project activities. The project will connect the state capitals of all the eight North Eastern states - Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.