Kochi: The Indian Oil Corporation says that the number of bullet tankers carrying LPG gas within the state will come down to a maximum of 30 per day from the current daily average of 120 with the commissioning of the LPG Terminal at Puthuvypeen. A senior official of the IOCL told this newspaper on Tuesday that out of the 120-125 bullet tanker’s coming to Kerala on a daily basis from the LPG Terminal at Mangalore 50 are for Kochi. The commissioning of the plant will take away 50 tankers from the roads immediately, he said. The IOCL official also said the tanker movement will come down further if the government gives permission for pipeline linking the LPG bottling plant at Chelari near Kozhikode with Kochi-Salem pipeline.
‘We have already sought permission of the government for hook-up with Chelari plant from Thrissur or Palakkad”, he added. According to him this would enable a further cutting down of gas tankers by plying in the state by another 30-40 vehicles per day. The IOCL is having three LPG bottling plants in the state at Kochi, Chelari and Parippally and all three of them are currently depending on supply from Mangalore. According to an IOCL spokesman the upcoming LPG import Terminal at Puthuvypeen will significantly help reduce the backlog for LPG cylinder supply in the state, which is currently at about 15 days.
IOCL claims that the project not only has all necessary approvals in place but is designed to conform to global standards of safety. The terminal will store LPG in mounded vessels, considered the safest in the industry worldwide. Vessels are made of 45-mm thick boiler quality steel plates and will be buried in the sand, surrounded by a 1.25-metre thick reinforced concrete wall.
