KOCHI: Who will implement the petcoke (petroleum coke) based power plant project in Kochi? There had been no mention about the project in Finance Minister Thomas Issac’s budget speech. The project was first proposed in the 12th Five Year Plan as the fifth year’s (2016-17) programme.
The then government allotted Rs 10 lakh for the petcoke based power plant. The idea was to set up petcoke power plant using the fuel produced from BPCL Kochi Refinery’s integrated refinery expansion project (IREP). The Refinery expansion will yield approximately 1.4 million metric tonnes of petcoke.
This can be used to produce around 500-600 MW of power. INKEL, Kerala’s PPP model infrastructure development company, prepared the feasibility study of the project in March 2014. After that the project went into hibernation, which still continues.
Earlier it was said the project will be implemented as a joint venture of KSEB and BPCL Kochi Refinery. Then INKEL came into the scene and was given the responsibility.
“We had prepared the feasibility study of the project and a report was submitted two years ago. That was it. Later it was heard that KSEB will be implementing the project,” said Muraleedharan Pillai, head technical, INKEL Ltd.
The state government has approved the proposal in principle. The project is bolstered by many favourable factors; including assured fuel supply from the BPCL refinery with negligible transportation cost; adequate water source; pollution-free, eco-friendly, advanced technology and excellent connectivity.
The 150 acres of land identified for the project belongs to Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) at Irimpanam, adjacent to the BPCL expansion project. It was said to be acquired by Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) for the power plant.
When ‘Express’ contacted N Venugopal, director, KSEB Limited, he said the board does not have such a plan. “We do not plan to implement the petcoke project in Kochi,” he said.
When contacted, a KSIDC official said they are not associated with the project. “Before we began the formalities to acquire the land for the project, we were told that it would be acquired by Kinfra. Hence we retreated from the scene,” he said.
Interestingly, Kinfra also washes off its hand from the project. “We have submitted a proposal to the government to set up a petrochemical park at Ambalamedu. But it does not include the petcoke project. Also the land acquisition proceedings have not been completed,” explains K N Sreekumar, a senior officer of Kinfra.
However, there is a silver lining to all these developments. The Central Government mooted a pan-India ban on petcoke since it is highly polluting. The Ministry of Environment and Forests will file an affidavit in the Supreme Court soon.
According to Sunita Narain, Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment, petcoke needs to be banned across India since it is a highly polluting fuel.
“A restriction is needed on the import of petcoke, which is a refinery byproduct, since countries like the US and China are using India as a ‘dumping ground’,” she said recently.