Consumption of natural gas in the State is set for a big leap and is expected to reach around 60 lakh cubic metres a day after the 444-km Kochi-Mangaluru pipeline is commissioned by March 2020.
All works related to the commissioning of the pipeline was complete and works related to river crossings in Kozhikode (Kuttiyadi), Kasaragod (Chandragiri) and Mangaluru (Netravati) remained, said GAIL India General Manager Tony Mathew here.
Natural gas consumption in Kochi city touched an all-time high when daily consumption reached 38.3 lakh cubic metres in the second week of January, he said. Industries account for bulk of the gas use. Bharat Petroleum Corporation uses 28 lakh cubic metres; FACT nine lakh cubic metres and other industrial units account for 1.3 lakh cubic metres of consumption.
Automobile sector
Consumption of natural gas by vehicles and households alone is 34,600 cubic metres. The volume is set to go up in the near future as the automobile sector is increasingly switching to natural gas.
The industry sector makes substantial savings when it switches from LPG to natural gas. Switching over to natural gas can help a taxi driver save substantially in fuel cost every month as the cost per kilometre of petrol vehicles is between ₹5.5 and ₹6 compared to the ₹2-per-km for CNG.
Walayar pipeline
Work on the 94-km pipeline to Walayar from Koottanad is in progress. Eighty per cent of the work has been completed and the pipeline can be commissioned by June 30. The pipeline will help the city gas distribution in Palakkad as well as supply of fuel to industrial units in Palakkad and Coimbatore.
Published - January 20, 2020 01:37 am IST
