Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Jun 18: The country’s largest underground liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility has been successfully completed in Mangaluru. The massive underground cavern can store up to 80,000 metric tonnes of LPG.

To ensure the safety of the underground storage system, a Cavern Acceptance Test (CAT) was conducted between May 9 and June 6, according to experts from Megha Engineering, the firm that executed the project. The facility has been set up by the central government in Mangaluru, adding to a similar underground storage structure that already exists in Visakhapatnam. This new facility will help meet the country's gas demands during any emergency situation.

This is the third underground storage cavern in the Mangaluru region. Earlier facilities include the one at Permude with a capacity of 1.5 lac metric tonnes and another at Padur with a capacity of 2.5 lac metric tonnes for crude oil storage. Unlike those, this new facility is specifically meant for LPG storage. While the Visakhapatnam LPG storage cavern has a 60,000-tonne capacity, the Mangaluru facility surpasses it with 80,000 metric tonnes, making it the largest in India.

The central government approved the project in 2018 and construction began in 2019. Going forward, LPG will be pumped into the facility via a floating jetty located in the sea. The required pipeline construction has also been completed.

The cavern has been constructed 500 meters below the surface by drilling through solid rock, and the project was completed at a cost of Rs 800 crore.