Gas supplies from the Oil and Natural Gas Corp to GAIL's Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur (HBJ) pipeline were stopped on Thursday morning due to heavy flooding at Hazira, where the pipeline begins.

"Restoration work can even take three to four days but I cannot say anything on what kind of damage has been done by the flood waters. It may be earlier also," RS Malik, GAIL's general manager, told Reuters.

The 2,000 km pipeline has a capacity of 33 million cubic metres of gas a day and was flowing 30 million cubic metres a day before the shutdown. All of the gas comes from ONGC in Hazira.

Petroleum minister VK Ramamurthy told a conference of economic editors in New Delhi that the government hopes to restore normal operations of the pipeline within a week.

"We are hoping to restore normalcy at the HBJ pipeline within aweek. We have some good news today...waters are already receding," Ramamurthy said.

GAIL distributes gas from Hazira to five power plants in central and northern India and five fertiliser plants.

"Some reduced supplies are being maintained for power plants, and these are expected to last for 36 hours," GAIL said in a statement late on Thursday.

GAIL said its Hazira compressor station was under two feet of water, and water had also entered the control room.

"Our communications lines are down since yesterday but what information I have received from other sources is that the water level has receded as there have been no rains since yesterday evening," Malik said.

He said GAIL officials from Baroda had left for Hazira to start restoration work.

The government has directed state-run oil companies to draw up a contingency plan to tackle the emergency situation arising due to floods in Gujarat.

An Indian Oil Corp spokesman said a contingency plan had been drawn up to supply liquid fuel to allgas-based power plants of the National Thermal Power Corp and Delhi utility, Delhi Vidyut Board.

He said the Mathura refinery was also being switched to alternative liquid fuels in place of natural gas.

Meanwhile, about 50,000 people continued to stay in schools and municipal buildings in Surat, though flood waters were receding.

"The flood situation has improved, and the water level has receded to two to three feet in most parts from eight to 10 feet," S Jagdishan, municipal commissioner, Surat, told Reuters.

Surat, a centre for diamond polishers and textile manufacturers with a population of 2.5 million, lies some 250 km south of the state capital, Ahmedabad.