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Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL), which has signed an agreement with Gangavaram Port Ltd for developing a liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal, said it would start construction of the terminal in the second half of this year.

"We have got all necessary clearances for construction. The construction should start towards the end of this year after we complete the process of awarding the work contract," said A. K. Balyan, managing director and chief executive officer of PLL on the sidelines of a B-School event here.

In December 2013, the Gangavaram LNG terminal project was recommended by expert appraisal committee (EAC) of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for grant of environment(EC) and Coastal regulatory Zone (CRZ) clearance.

In its earlier meeting in October 2013, the EAC had deferred the approval of the project on the grounds that the project promoter should first obtain compliance reports on pollution issues from Gangavaram Port, Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APCB) and Bangalore-based regional office of MoEF.

The Gangavaram LNG Terminal is expected to help meet the growing energy demand of eastern and central part of India.The terminal will comprise of facilities for receiving, storage and regasification of LNG with a capacity upto 5 million tonne per annum and will be developed with an approximate investment of INR  4500 Crores. The agreement for the project was signed in May 2012.

Petronet LNG Limited is jointly promoted by BPCL, GAIL, IOCL and ONGC. Initially the the PSU was scouting for a place in Odisha coast to develop the terminal. After first round of talks with the authorities of Dhamra, Gopalpur and Paradip port, they had zeroed in at Paradip port. However, they dropped the plan later citing unavailability of suitable land near Paradip.

Petronet runs India's first LNG receiving and re-gasification terminal at Dahej (Gujarat) having a capacity of 10 million tonne per annum (mtpa), equivalent to 40 mscmd (million standard cubic metres per day) of natural gas. The company is in the process of building another terminal at Kochi (Kerala) which will have a capacity of five mtpa equivalent to 20 mscmd. India's gas demand is expected to reach 381 mscmd by 2015, compared with a supply of 202.9 mscmd. India has an LNG import capacity of 13.5 mtpa through two terminals, accounting for about 20 Percent of the country's gas requirements. Besides Petronet LNG, a joint venture of Shell Gas BV and Total Gaz Electricite Holdings-France runs a 3.5 mtpa capacity LNG terminal at Hazira, also in Gujarat.

Source-On Request