Amid mounting safety concerns about the movement of cooking gas by road through densely populated areas in the State, work on the proposed Kochi-Coimbatore gas pipeline is awaiting clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.
The pipeline project had received most of the approvals and the State government was making efforts to get the Centre’s clearance, Bharat Petroleum Corporation sources said on Thursday.
They said there was a possibility of the work beginning by December. Orders for the pipes can be placed only after the environmental clearance is through. The project had been cleared by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Board.
Tanker accidentThey emphasised the importance of the pipeline project citing the accident on Wednesday night in which an LPG tanker overturned close to the heart of Kochi, killing the driver on the spot and triggering panic among people in the heavily populated area surrounding the accident site.
They said the establishment of the pipeline would result in 80 to 90 LPG tankers a day going off the roads in Ernakulam, Thrissur and Palakkad districts. Only the bottling plants in Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram would need the service of tankers after the establishment of the pipeline.
The pipeline, being built jointly by Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Indian Oil Corporation, will link Kochi to Coimbatore and help do away with the fleet of LPG tankers now transporting cooking gas by road. The pipeline will be extended to Salem in the second phase of the project.
The pipeline has an envisaged capacity to carry 1.2 million tonnes of gas annually and is central to the Rs.20,000-crore expansion and modernisation of the BPCL refinery here. The expanded refinery will produce 1.26 million tonnes of LPG yearly from the current level of 0.6 million tonnes.
The pipeline will start from the Kochi refinery and end in Coimbatore, covering a total length of 237 km with Kerala accounting for 187 km. A total of 44 km will pass through Ernakulam; 102 km through Thrissur and 51 km through Palakkad.
