LAGOS, March. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian federal government has signed a 19.9 billion naira (155 million U.S. dollars) Calabar-Adanga gas pipeline project with the Messrs IDT Consortium.

    It marked a major step in the country's bid to improve power generation, transmission and distribution under the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP), said the Ministry of Energy Tuesday.

    The 107 km pipeline with a diameter of 24 inches (61 cm) will supply gas from the Addax platform offshore to the 561 megawatts gas power plant being built at Ikot Nyong, near Calabar in southern Nigeria's Cross River State.

    The project, expected to be completed within 15 months, is one of the projects under the NIPP, which is aimed at building seven new power plants with associated gas pipeline, over 1,000 km of transmission line network and several distribution projects allover the country.

    (1 U.S. dollar = 128 naira)