The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has granted coastal regulation zone (CRZ) clearance for the development of the city gas distribution (CGD) network in Karaikal, Puducherry and Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu. The pipeline is to be laid exclusively by the horizontal directional drilling method across canals, rivers, waterbodies and CRZ areas as suggested by the MoEFCC.