With the final clearance from the National Green Tribunal in hand, Indian Oil Corporation is all set to re-start construction activities at its ₹2,200-crore LPG import terminal-cum-pipeline project at Puthuvypeen near Kochi. Necessary orders in this regard have been issued by the Kerala government and the work is expected to commence in January, probably after the Sabarimala pilgrim season. The NGT judgment has made it amply clear that “there is no environmental pollution in the Puthuvypeen project,” said S Dhanapandian, Deputy General Manager (LPG-project), IOCL. “We are incurring a loss of ₹10 million per day since February 2017 due to suspension of work at the construction site in the wake of the agitation by the local community against the project,” he said.
Safety Measures
IOCL, he said, has adopted global standards on safety measures and one-third of the cost is being spent on safety. The risk analysis study conducted by Projects & Development India Ltd has estimated the risk factor in a million chances per year, Dhanapandian told a visiting group of journalists from Kochi after displaying the safety features adopted at the company’s Ennore LPG terminal project. This terminal has safely handled 7.2 million tons of LPG since its commissioning in 2012, he said.
No Road Movement
The Kochi terminal, with the pipelines connecting the bottling plant, will eliminate the movement of bulk LPG by road, he said, citing the removal of LPG tanker lorry movement from Mangaluru to Tamil Nadu after the commissioning of Ennore terminal. “Today, we receive nearly 125 bullet trucks of bulk LPG per day from Mangaluru to Kerala travelling around 1,000 km through narrow and curved roads, posing colossal accident risks and fire hazards,” he added.
The Kochi project consists of an import terminal, multi-user liquid terminal (MULT) jetty, Kochi-Salem pipeline and the bulk LPG terminal at Palakkad with a total investment of ₹22 billion. Of this, the ₹2.25 billion jetty is ready and the company has invested another ₹1.60 billion for construction activities. The physical progress of the work is only 40 per cent complete, which includes ground improvement, land development, etc.
Kerala’s LPG Demand
Dhanapandian claims that early completion of the project will ensure LPG availability to the households across the counter. Kerala presently has an average waiting period of 15 days to receive a LPG refill. This could go up if the infrastructure expansion does not happen. Referring to LPG consumption in the State, he said it was 0.84 million tons in 2016-17, which would touch 1.32 million tons by 2022 and 2.27 million tons by 2028. India imports 50 per cent of its LPG requirements. With the boom in LPG requirement, imports are expected to go up. To meet the huge growth in volumes, infrastructure must be improved.
LPG is imported through the major ports on the coast and there are 13 import terminals. Kochi is next on the list. The design of the terminal has been approved by regulatory agencies, who will inspect during the construction stage and prior to commissioning.
