Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate the Kochi – Mangaluru Natural Gas Pipeline to the nation at 11 AM through video conferencing today. In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that it is a landmark day in India’s quest for Urja Aatmanirbharta. He said, this is a futuristic project that will positively impact many people.
The event marks an important milestone towards the creation of One Nation One Gas Grid. The 450 kilometre long pipeline has been built by GAIL (India) Limited. It has transportation capacity of 12 Million Metric Standard Cubic Metres per day. It will carry natural gas from the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Regasification Terminal at Kochi, Kerala to Mangaluru, Karnataka, while passing through Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod districts. The total cost of the project was about three thousand crore rupees and its construction created over 12 lakh man-days of employment.
Laying of the pipeline was an engineering challenge as the route of the pipeline necessitated it to cross water bodies at more than 100 locations. This was done through a special technique called Horizontal Directional Drilling method. The pipeline will supply environment friendly and affordable fuel in the form of Piped Natural Gas, PNG to households and Compressed Natural Gas, CNG to the transportation sector. It will also supply Natural Gas to commercial and industrial units across the districts along the pipeline. Consumption of cleaner fuel will help in improving air quality by curbing air pollution.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyoorappa and Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan will participate in the inaugural function.