KOCHI: The LPG import and storage terminal in Puthuvypeen of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will be having enhanced safety and security features compared with LPG import and storage terminal at Ennore port near Chennai in Tamil Nadu. Speaking to a group of reporters visiting the terminal at Ennore S Dhanapandian, IOCL General Manager (LPG projects), who set up the Ennore terminal said the advances in safety features in the past eight years will be incorporated in the Puthu Vypeen terminal.
The LPG terminal in Puthuvypeen is already a notch above the Ennore plant in safety requirement as the storage tanks and the pipeline network in Puthuvypeen are underground while in Ennore both are in over ground. The Rs 540.cr terminal started in 2010 and commissioned in 2012 has a record of operating without any safety related issues in the past six years, said Dhanapandian.
The commissioning of the plant has eliminated bullet tankers carrying the LPG from Mangalore to Chennnai, he said. On an average 300 LPG tanker trucks coming to Chennai covering nearly 1,500 km to various bottling plants in Tamil Nadu has been eliminated completely, he added. “The terminal has handled about 72 lakh tonnes of LPG since commissioning and unloaded 346 number of ship tankers without any safety issues”, he added. Stressing the importance of the LPG import and storage terminal in Puthuvypeen for decongesting the roads in Kerala Dhanapandian said 120 bullet tankers operate between Mangalore and Kochi per day for meeting the requirements of IOCL alone.
Apart from IOCL bottling facilities of BPCL and HPCL also having bullet tanker movements, he said, and added that the movements of the bullet tankers could be avoided totally with the setting up of the LPG import and storage terminal. The work on the Rs 490 project has been stalled since February 2017 following a section of the local people mounting an agitation against the project raising concerns over safety issues. Although National Green Tribunal has dismissed the petition against the project work is yet to be resumed. Allaying fears about the safety Dhanapandian said the Ennore project is located in a place surrounded by two villages comprising 15,000 households. The storage terminal is bank on the four-lane highway as well as close to the Chennai-Kolkotta railway line, he added.
