State-owned GAIL India has completed work on the first phase of pipeline that will connect the upcoming liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Kochi to consumers in Kerala.
“Mechanical completion of 40-km Phase-1 has been done and is ready for gas intake subject to availability of gas from Petronet LNG Ltd,’’ Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Panabaka Lakshmi informed Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
Petronet is building 5 million tonne per annum LNG import terminal at Kochi. The facility is likely to be completed in first quarter of 2013 after dredging of the navigational port is done. The Phase-I of the pipeline will connect the Kochi terminal to Fertilizer and Chemicals Travancore's (FACT) plant, she said.
The 879-Km Phase-II pipeline to Mangalore and Bangalore in Karnataka is under implementation and the actual physical progress of the project is 64.1 per cent. ``Phase-II of pipeline is passing through the states of Kerala (501 Km), Tamil Nadu (312 Km) and Karnataka (66 Km). As per GAIL's Board approval, schedule date of completion of the project is December 2012 but the project has got delayed,’’ she added.
The Minister said GAIL acquired right of use (RoU) in land from land owners/farmers to lay the pipeline and compensation was paid as per Petroleum & Mineral Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Act, 1962. GAIL has completed the process of acquiring RoU but is unable to handover RoU to the contractors due to severe resistance from land owners/farmers, she added.
