Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (MS)
Mangaluru, Oct 7: The largest LPG storage tunnel of India is being built in Mangaluru. The union government is constructing this facility to manage emergency situation with a view of defence of the nation. The storage facility is expected to be functional towards the end of December 2023.
HPCL, a union government enterprise, is building this facility. This is the second one after Visakhapatnam facility in Andhra Pradesh. This is the third underground storage facility that is being built in Mangaluru after Permude and Padur. Both the facilities at Permude and Padur have crude oil storage.
The first LPG underground storage facility was built in Visakhapatnam at a cost of Rs 333 crore in 2007. The capacity of this storage facility is 60000 metric tonne. The capacity of the underground storage facility that is being built at MSEZ in Mangaluru is 80000 metric tonne. The estimated cost is around Rs 800 crore. The gas will be supplied directly from huge vessels which will be stationed in the Arabian Sea through pipelines.
The union government gave the go ahead for this project in 2018. The work related to the project began in 2019. Installation of pipes from mid sea to the storage facility is complete. The necessary building construction is also done near the facility. The LPG storage tank is built at a depth of 500 meter after drilling a tunnel inside a mammoth rock. Sources said that 83% of the work is already complete.
The crude oil storage facility is already functioning in Permude and Padur. The facility in Permude has capacity of 1.5 million metric tonne and is built at a cost of Rs 1227 crore in 2009. This is functioning since 2016.
The Padur crude oil facility has storage capacity of 2.5 million metric tonne. It was built in 2010 at a cost of Rs 1693 crore. It has got four compartments. This facility is functioning since 2018 December.
Underground oil storage facility was built at Vishakpatnam in 2008 and started functioning in 2015. It has capacity of 1.33 million metric tonne and was built at a cost of Rs 1178 crore.