Kochi: The GAIL is scheduled to open its regional gas management centre (RGMC) hosting facilities to monitor the gas pipeline project and the control centre for gas distribution at Kalamassery, Kochi, by August-end.
It is for the first time that GAIL is opening an RGMC in a state at a time the pipeline laying work is still in progress. This will also be the first such centre that functions from GAIL’s own building in South India, other than the one in Rajamundry.
The RGMC will be integrated with the National Gas Management Centre at GAIL headquarters in Noida and will primarily host the control system of the pipeline that carries LNG.
“It will have a wide wall which will indicate what is happening in the pipelines real time, which includes minor changes in the pressure, temperature and leakage,” GAIL sources said. “This will help us take immediate corrective steps if needed.”
The RGMC is coming up close to the sectionalising valve station, which ensures that any emergency situation is attended to safely, the sources said.
The 35,000 sq-ft building will also host the company's regional centre which now functions from Revenue Tower on Park Avenue in Kochi.
The GAIL teams for project management, operation and maintenance and project management consultancy, apart from the competent authority for land acquisition and his staff will also stationed at the centre.
The GRIHA-compliant green building is being built at a cost of Rs 17 crore. It is the first such building owned by GAIL in South India.
The GAIL is at present laying the 509-km Kochi-Kuttanad Bangalore-Mangalore pipeline project.
The work on the Rs 5000-crore project has picked up speed after the state government assured the gas distribution and marketing company that it will go the whole hog to ensure that land is made available for laying the pipelines.
