Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said the Kochi-Mangaluru natural gas pipeline, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, will pave the way for another wave of industrialisation of the State.
He said the Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) and the petrochemicals complex coming up close to the Kochi refinery of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. would benefit from the availability of natural gas.
He was addressing the gathering on the dedication of the 450-km natural gas pipeline to the nation via teleconferencing.
The gas pipeline has been in the making for a long time. The project had come almost to a standstill in September 2014. Since then the government had made all efforts to reactivate the project through concerted efforts and through the participation of the people, Mr. Vijayan said.
Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan, in his address, congratulated and thanked the Chief Minister for the support in the completion of the project through Kerala. He called the completion of the pipeline project an example of cooperative federalism.
The gas pipeline, starting at the LNG terminal in Kochi, goes through Ernakulam district (16 km), Thrissur (78 km), Palakkad (105 km), Malappuram (58 km), Kozhikode (80 km), Kannur (83 km), and Kasaragod (83 km) before reaching Mangaluru. The gas pipeline project has been progressing in different phases. The domestic gas supply in Kochi and surrounding areas has been active since 2013 when nearly 50-km pipeline was completed.
