Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (RJP)
Mangaluru, Sep 30: The state forest, ecology and environment ministry has given green signal for the Mangaluru-Bengaluru gas pipeline. The important and crucial decision has come after the union forest and environment ministry gave its approval for the project.
The permission with 18 conditions from the state ministry had come in July, but was only made public on Tuesday September 29. It took almost three years to get the permission from the ministry concerned, it is said.
The work on the pipeline, an ambitious project of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), should begin soon in the wake of the permission and by 2017-18, gas should start flowing through the pipeline to Bengaluru, said HPCL sources.
The area in the forest land for which the permission sought is 19. 17 hectares. The original application was submitted to the state ministry by the HPCL. After that the chief conservator of forests wrote a letter to the union ministry for approval. An in principle permission was given with a request to take an undertaking from HPCL to follow the conditions. The state ministry sent a draft proposal with conditions to the union ministry for which the permission was granted.
The total length of the pipeline is 397 kilometers. Presently the gas carried only by truck tankers is a very expensive mode of transport and takes longer time. The size of the pipeline will not be uniform throughout. The pipeline size is 14 inches between Mangaluru and Neriya, 16 inches between Neriya and Hassan, 10 inches between Hassan and Mysuru, 10 inches between Hassan and Yediyur, and 8 inches between Yediyur and Solur. Mangaluru, Mysuru, Yediyur and Solur will have receiving stations and Neriya will have a pumping station. From Hassan there will be twin pipelines, one via Mysuru and another directly to Bengaluru. As much as 1. 8 million tonnes of gas is expected to be transported from the origin to the destination.
The original outlay of the project was Rs 666.18 crore and due to cost escalation it is feared that the amount now will easily reach Rs 1,000 crore, HPCL sources said.
Conditions:
Some of the 18 conditions put by the ministry are that the validity of the lease would be twenty years; the forest land required for the project should not exceed the specified 19.17 hectares; the work has to be completed within two years; there should not be any harm to eco system or to animals; there should not be any displacement of people; road construction, if any, on the said land should be done with permission; and a substitute forest in an area of 38.338 hectares should be created.