Delay in laying LNG pipeline to cost state dear

Thiruvananthapuram: Time is running out for Kerala to lay the pipelines to evacuate liquefied natural gas (LNG) stored at the terminal at Puthuvypeen in Kochi, what with the Central government taking a serious note of the lack of progress in the project.

The terminal, built at a cost of Rs 4,500 crore, at present operates at a capacity utilisation of less than 2 per cent.

A senior official of a Kerala-based PSU told DC that the Central government has expressed its unhappiness about the lapses on the State's part.

“We have been told that help to Kerala projects impinge on the progress the State makes in the pipeline project.” Petronet has set up the .5 MMTPA terminal while GAIL, a public sector enterprise, is executing the 550-km pipeline, connecting the terminal to Bengaluru and Mangalore.

The project is mired in issues related to land acquisition in Kerala while it has run into legal hurdles in Tamil Nadu.

GAIL officials said 90 per cent of the population stands by the project in the seven districts of Kerala through which the pipeline passes.

GAIL has designed a compensation formula which offers ten per cent of five times the fair value to the land owner for the right of use of land. The trees and other valuables will be compensated separately.

"We have to get the right of way of approximately 500 hectares of land to lay the pipelines," GAIL Deputy General Manager K P Ramesh told DC.

"We will have to spend Rs 45 crore for the right of use while it will be ' 95 crore for the payment for trees and other valuables." The pipelines will be laid meeting international safety standards, he said.