A 362-km pipeline for transporting liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will be constructed from Mangalore to Bangalore, with a split line from Hassan to Mysore, said M. Veerappa Moily, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, at a press meet held in Surathkal on Wednesday. He was speaking after inaugurating a transport hub, said to be south India’s first, here.
TargetHe said the pipeline, to be built at a cost of Rs. 701 crore, is expected to be completed by November 2015.
A press release, with details of the pipeline, said it will initially meet a demand of 1.12 MMTPA (million metric tonne per annum) and a final demand of 1.78 MMTPA. The project has received most of the statutory approvals, including from the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), State Pollution Control Board, labour licences and approval from the Forest Department is in progress. Land of 2.47 acres in Mysore for a receiving station and 9.93 acres at Hassan for an intermediate station has been taken possession of, while land possession at Neriya, Dakshina Kannada district, is in the process. Mobilisation of men and machinery by contractors is in progress.
Mangalore is the single-largest supply location for LPG and Mangalore LPG Import Facilities Terminal (MLIF) was established in 1996 to evacuate LPG produced from MRPL, and to receive and distribute LPG through imports. The release added that Mangalore’s location on the west coast makes it easier to import LPG to the city as it is closer to principal LPG supply locations of the Persian Gulf and Arabian Gulf.
Unsuitable terrainHPCL’s MLIF receives, stores and distributes to destinations on behalf of the entire industry. But road tankers moving out of Mangalore have to negotiate the Western Ghats before moving to the plains. The narrow and steep Ghat roads are unsuitable for movement of heavy and dangerous cargo and it gets worse during monsoon.
Pipelines are best suited to move LPG as they consume low energy during transport, are low cost, have low transit loss, higher safety and environmental advantages, said the release.
