Give more land for power plant, port told

A meeting chaired by T.K.A. Nair, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, at the Cochin Port Trust (CPT) on Saturday reviewed the progress in the implementation of the proposed LNG Terminal project.

The meeting decided to finalise the technical specification of the pipelines to be laid to facilitate the augmentation of the existing capacity of 350 mW at the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) plant by an additional 1,050 mW along with a further provision to increase it by another 25 per cent.

The LNG project being built by Petronet LNG Limited (PLL) at a cost of Rs.4,000 crore will be supplemented by the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), which will lay pipelines at an estimated cost of Rs.4,000 crore.

GAIL will also facilitate supply of gas to FACT plants at Udyogamandal and Ambalamedu as well as to the KSEB Power Plant at Brahmapuram.

NTPC has decided to set up its own water desalination plant at Kayamkulam thus ruling out the dependence on fresh water supply from the Kallada Project.

Union Petroleum Secretary had been asked to coordinate the activities of different agencies like PLL, GAIL, NTPC, FACT, State government and so on in this regard. CPT had been asked to initiate steps to allot additional land for setting up the power plant of 1,250 mW capacity at Puthuvypeen. Construction of the Puthuvypeen LNG Terminal is scheduled to be completed by December, 2011, and turn operational by March, 2012.

Massive investment

Together with its down-stream projects, the entire facility is expected to involve an investment to the tune of Rs.16,000 crore making it the largest industrial investment in the State.

The easy availability of inexpensive gas is also expected to give a fillip to the industrial sector in the State

K. Mohandas, Secretary, Union Ministry for Shipping; R.S. Pandey, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas; Mathew C. Kunnumkal, Special Secretary and FA, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers; R.S. Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director, NTPC; L. Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary, State government; Alkesh Sharma, Secretary, State government; District Collector M. Beena; and senior officials of Prime Minister’s Office, National Highways Authority of India; GAIL, PLL, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited and FACT were also present.