News Detail

• Ministry of Forest and Environment (MoEF) on Wednesday gave clearance for the Kochi-Bengaluru pipeline being laid by the GAIL to carry gas from the Petronet LNG terminal coming up at Kochi."The MoEF has just given us the green signal after we submitted the letter from the Kerala government strongly recommending clearance for the pipeline,'' deputy general manager of the GAIL, K P Ramesh told TOI here over telephone from Bengaluru.
• The MoEF had recently written to the Kerala Government suggesting that the work on the pipeline be put on hold till the settlement of the litigations over 4.33 hectares of forest land enroute the pipeline in the Palakkad region.Kerala Forest secretary Sajan Peter then wrote to the MoEF officials recalling that that the litigations had nothing do with the environmental impact of the project, but was related only to the ownership of the land.
• The GAIL had not demanded ownership of the land but has applied only "right of use'' of the land to lay the pipeline. The GAIL officials had also promised that they were ready to pay the compensation for the land was as per the rules, whoever has been selected as the owner after the litigations are settled.
• "Now we will be able to complete the Rs3,250 crore pipe-laying project by May 2013 as originally scheduled. There are five stretches of the pipeline passing through Kerala and contracts for four stretches have already been awarded and the remaining one also will be awarded soon. However, the first phase of the pipeline from LNG terminal to Amabalamukal and Udyogamandal will be completed before this October when the terminal will start commercial operation,'' Ramesh said.

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