THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said the Kochi-Mangaluru natural gas pipeline project is set for commissioning with GAIL India completing the laying of pipes for the project in Kerala. The final work of installing a 1.5km pipeline across river Chandragiri in Kasaragod was completed on Saturday.
“The project will be commissioned in December. Within a week, industrial units in Mangaluru will receive gas through the pipeline,” he said.
Of the 510km-long GAIL natural gas pipeline passing through the state, 470km of pipeline was laid during the LDF government, the CM said. “The state government had undertaken a challenging task. During the UDF’s term, the government could lay only 40km of pipeline. The single-window clearance for the project was granted when V S Achuthanandan was the chief minister,” he said.
In the first phase, the pipeline project was intended to take gas to the industrial units in Kochi. The second phase saw the project extended to Mangaluru. The project launched in 2009 at an estimated cost of Rs 2,915 crore was to be commissioned in 2014.