A road show to attract investments into the petroleum sector to be held in Mumbai later this month can attract massive investments for projects in the Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ), said M. Veerappa Moily, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, here on Saturday.
Talking after the inauguration of the Rs. 1-crore transport hub – touted as the first-of-its-kind for gas tank drivers – at HPCL’s Mangalore LPG Import Facility on the outskirts of the city, Mr. Moily said downstream projects (that require LPG) need investments of between Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 30,000. “Many of them can come up around the MSEZ. Mangalore will be like Jamnagar then,” he said.
He said the Phase 3 of MRPL will be inaugurated next month, and the Ministry was waiting for either the Prime Minister or UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to confirm dates; while, the foundation stone for a LNG terminal will be laid soon.
Mr. Moily envisioned the expansion of the crude oil storage capacity of caverns – the work on the Rs. 1,230-crore 1.5 million-tonne cavern in the city had recently been completed – from the present 5.33 MT to 12.5 MT.
The transport hub will serve the nearly 300 tanker drivers who visit the LPG plant on a daily basis. Equipped with drinking water facilities, toilets, dormitory, bakery, ATM, televisions, library, meditation room among others, the hub aims to improve the mental and physical health of truckers who have to, often, travel for hundreds of kilometres at a stretch, said Kanuru Srinivas, Deputy General Manager (LPG), HPCL South Zone.
He rued that there was considerable opposition during the laying of pipelines which were the safest mode of transporting LPG.
