In a bid to allay the public protest against the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) terminal project at Puthuvypeen, the IOC officials are on a mission to create awareness among the public about the definite safety measures undertaken by them.
A Pandian, general manager, Kerala Office, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Limited told ‘City Express’ that the project will not affect the normal lives of the people and the safety measures will have national and international standards.
The IOC’s general manager said they were investing lot of money for the safety measures. The total cost of the project is Rs 600. In this, Rs 430 crore will be used for constructing the LPG storage centre and Rs 170 will be spent on the jetty at Puthuvypeen for receiving cargo. “The major part of the fund will be used for taking national and international-standard safety measures. We will also communicate with the public about the details of the safety measures, if they are going on with the protests against the project,” he said.
Pandian said that awareness will be created among the people about the importance of the project. “As many as 6 million metric tonnes of LPG is imported to the state every year. Still, LPG’s demand is escalating. The project will boost the importing capacity of the state,” he added.
The IOC official said they would complete the project within 30 months.
“The route for the pipeline to connect the storage centre and the IOC plant at Udayamperoor will be decided soon. We will finalize the route only after taking suggestions from the public,” he said.
According to the project, a jetty will be constructed by Cochin Port Trust (CPT) at Puthuvypeen. The IOC will construct a storage facility three km away from the spot, at the special economic zone allotted by the CPT.
The three-kilometre stretch between the jetty and the storage facility centre will be connected by a pipeline. From there, the LPG will be transferred to the IOC plant at Udayamperoor via the pipeline.