Gas Act, 1976

Powers of Board in relation to the construction, maintenance and repair of pipelines.

27.—(1) Subject to subsections (7), (8) and (9) of section 8 of this Act and to the following subsections of this section, for the purpose of constructing, maintaining or repairing any pipeline (whether or not the pipeline is the property of the Board) the Board may do all or any of the following, namely—

(a) alter, repair or demolish any building or part thereof,

(b) alter, repair, remove or demolish any fence, hedge, tree or wall,

(c) in case any part of a pipeline is below the surface of land, place on the land markers to indicate the presence of the pipeline beneath the surface of the land,

(d) dig, break or otherwise temporarily close, cross, extend, divert or otherwise interfere with or alter any road, railway, navigable waterway, river, stream or other watercourse, bridge, tunnel, culvert, pipe, drain or other thing,

provided that in relation to a fence, hedge, tree, wall or building which is adjacent to a public road, or the placing by the Board of a marker on or adjacent to such a road, the Board shall only exercise a power under this subsection with the consent of the road authority concerned, and in case there is a dispute as to whether a particular fence, hedge, tree, wall or building is adjacent to a public road, or as to whether a marker will when placed be in or adjacent to such a road, the matter shall be referred by the Board to the Minister to determine and his decision shall be final.

(2) The Board shall not, in relation to a thing owned by the Commission, a road authority, a person specified or described in section 8 (9) of this Act or the Minister or any other Minister of State, exercise a power mentioned in subsection (1) of this section except with the consent of the Commission, road authority, person or Minister of State concerned and in giving such consent the Commission, authority, person or Minister may attach thereto such reasonable conditions as it or he thinks fit and in addition to the foregoing,

(a) the Board shall not enter on or take possession of any dwellinghouse in exercise of such a power without giving the occupier thereof three months' previous notice in writing of its intention so to do, and

(b) the Board shall not so enter on or take possession of any land, other than a dwellinghouse, without giving the occupier thereof one month's previous notice in writing of its intention so to do.

(3) Subject to section 33 of this Act, the Board or their servants or agents or any contractor employed by the Board or any workman employed by such contractor may, with or without vehicles, machinery or other apparatus or equipment, for the purpose of,

(a) gaining access to the site of a pipeline which is constructed or which is in the course of construction or is to be constructed by the Board,

(b) gaining access to a pipeline (whether or not the pipeline is the property of the Board) in order to inspect, repair, maintain or replace it,

enter on land at any reasonable time, or, in the case of an emergency, at any time.

(4) (a) Subject to paragraphs (b) and (c) of this subsection, to subsection (1) of this section, and to section 33 of this Act, the Board may for any purpose mentioned in subsection (3) of this section construct on or over any land a bridge, road or pathway of any description, and when constructed by the Board, use and maintain such bridge, road or pathway.

(b) Before exercising a power to construct under this subsection the Board shall obtain the consent of the local authority within whose functional area the proposed road or pathway or bridge, or any part thereof, is proposed to be situate.

(c) Where the Board proposes to construct under this subsection a bridge, road or pathway on any land which belongs to the Commission or otherwise belongs to the State or is vested in a Minister of State, before exercising any of their powers in relation to the provision of the bridge, road or pathway, the Board shall first obtain the consent of—

(i) in case the land belongs to the Commission, the Commission,

(ii) in case the land otherwise belongs to the State, the Minister for Finance, and

(iii) in case the land is vested in a Minister of State, that Minister,

and the requirements of this paragraph are in addition to and not in substitution for the requirements of paragraph (b) of this subsection.

(5) A person entering on land under this section may do thereon all things ancillary to or reasonably necessary for the purpose for which the entry is made, and without prejudice to the foregoing such person may in particular do, or cause to be done, any of the following, namely, line sight, drill, bore, probe or excavate, or carry out soil tests and, if necessary, remove soil.

(6) In this section “road authority” has the same meaning as in section 2 of the Local Government Act, 1946 .