Kochi: Kerala roads crammed with LPG tankers from Mangalore refinery are to get a respite with the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited getting the environmental clearance for its Kochi-Salem LPG pipeline project, which will eliminate the need to cart the fuel to filling plants in the state.
The first phase of pipeline project, to be launched in November, plans a 4,500-tonne storage facility at Kanjikode in Palakkad to serve the Chelari LPG filling plant of Indian Oil Corporation and a pipeline to carry the fuel from the BPCL-Kochi Refinery to the Udayamperoor filling plant, which can supply gas to the Kollam bottling plant, also.
At present, all plants get the supply from Mangalore as well as Kochi refinery. Post expansion, Kochi refinery will be producing sufficient LPG to cater to the requirement of all the LPG bottling plants in Kerala.
The pipeline to Udayamperoor plant is scheduled to commision along with IREP in March 2016 and the line to Palakkad is scheduled for December 2016.
“There are about 45 tankers bringing LPG from Mangalore to Udayamperoor daily; this is besides those taking the fuel to Chelari and Kollam,” BPCL sources said. “We can avoid this once the project is commissioned.”
The 458-km Kochi-Salem pipeline project has an estimated cost of Rs 1,063 crore and will be implemented in three phases.
The first phase, which the BPCL plans to launch in November this year, is a 164-km pipeline connecting Kochi plant and Palakkad at a cost of Rs 423 crore.
The project will be implemented by Kochi-Salem Pipeline Limited, a 50:50 joint venture between BPCL and IOC.
The notification under section3(1) of PMP Act,1962 has been published and the notice distribution to the land owners is in progress.
This would follow notification under section 6(1) of the same act. Further, the pipeline to Palakkad is passing through the existing 18 meter corridor of Petronet CCK pipeline from Kochi to Coimbatore .
