KOCHI: The strike against the Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) proposed LPG Terminal at Puthuvype here on Monday will shift gears when a galaxy of national-level environmental activists and leaders cutting across political loyalties will address a rally consisting of over 1, 000 people from the region at Rajendra Maidan at 4 pm.
CPM veteran V S Achuthanandan will inaugurate the rally. CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran, Annie Raja, former KPCC chief V M Sudheeran and Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar are among the major names lined up by the LPG Terminal Virudha Janakeeya Samara Samithi.
C G Biju, secretary, LPG Terminal Virudha Janakeeya Samara Samithi, said the protestors will stage a ‘padayatra’ from Goshree Jn to the ‘Samara pandal’ at 2 pm. From there, the protesters will take out a vehicle journey to Rajendra Maidan. Last week, the High Court had denied the protesters nod for a ‘padayatra’ to Rajendra Maidan.
“Puthuvype is Asia’s most densely populated island. A project of this sort is not suitable for the island. Once the project comes up, over 500 LPG tanker lorries will carry LPG from Puthuvype, which will not only lead to major traffic snarls in the region, but also pose a threat to the safety of the island’s population,” he said.
Another concern of the islanders is the threat to their livelihood. “The three big projects viz., BPCL-KRL project, LNG Terminal, and IOC’s LPG terminal have barred the fishers’ free access to the sea, which is their main source of livelihood,” he said.
An expert committee headed by N Purnachandra Rao, director, National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS), Thiruvananthapuram, which studied the safety concerns voiced by the people and whether IOC had obtained statutory clearances for the plant, had submitted its report to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan last week. The other members of the committee were Eapen Varghese, Chief Town Planner (Retd) and K V Thomas, CRZ expert and former scientist with NCESS.
The `2,200 crore project is aimed at minimising the movement of bulk LPG tankers through the highways in the state. The IOC moves bulk LPG from Mangaluru to various LPG bottling plants in Northern Kerala with the help of around 100 bullet tankers everyday, which ply narrow highways.
On its part, IOC said the project would be beneficial to Kerala in a big way. The LPG backlog of 15 days in the state will be eliminated once the project comes on stream. Further, the import terminal will minimise the movement of bulk LPG tankers through the state’s highways.
“A pipeline linking the proposed LPG import terminal with Kochi Refineries and the LPG bottling plants at Udayamperoor, Palakkad, Coimbatore, Erode and Salem would go a long way in decongesting the state highways,” the IOC had said. Besides the import terminal, the `2,200 crore project comprises a multi-user liquid terminal, the Kochi-Salem LPG pipeline and a bulk terminal at Palakkad.