Kochi: Sadananda Gowda, Union Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementat-ion, called for the speedy completion of the LPG Import terminal at Puthuvypeen in Kochi with complete safety protocols during a review meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.
The project, facing stiff opposition from a section of the local community, came up during the review held by the minister on the status and progress of various projects funded by the Union Government in the state.
Expressing concern over the delay in the completion of the Rs 715-cr project, the minister ruled out the possibility of relocating the venture as nearly Rs 350 cr has already been invested in the project. The officials connected with the LPG project of Indian Oil Corporation explained the reasons including the agitation by a section of the people against the project and the litigations in the High Court and the National Green Tribunal.
An official who took part in the deliberations told this newspaper that IOCL was ready to recommence work on the project as the Chennai Bench of the NGT had rejected the opposition to the project and given it a green signal. “We are waiting for a meeting with the state government in the matter before commencing the work”, he said.
IOCL officials told the minister that the apprehensions raised by those objecting to the project had been rejected by the NGT including the argument that the project was coming up in a thickly populated area. The thickly populated area argument did not hold much water as a place like Mumbai with a population of nearly 1.7 cr people had two LPG Terminal projects similar to the project in Kochi, said an IOCL official.
IOCL officials are worried that the project, originally scheduled to be completed in March, has been delayed due to the agitation even as the import terminal jetty linked with the storage terminal is nearing completion.
