KOCHI: The ongoing piped natural gas project at Kalamassery Municipality is in the eye of a storm with the civic body on Tuesday deciding to issue a show cause notice to the Indian Oil-Adani Gas Pvt Ltd (IOAGPL) for the delay in the project. The decision came after both the ruling and Opposition parties raised objections against the company’s failure to complete the project in the five divisions.
According to the Kalamassery Municipality authorities, the IOAGPL had only secured permission to dig up the roads in wards 10, 12, 13, 14 and 20. According to T S Aboobakar, vice president and acting chairperson of Kalamassery Municipality, the project was inaugurated nearly three years ago and the company failed to complete the project on time as promised.
“The council will only give permission if they complete the existing work. We will not give road trenching permission till they complete the work in the five wards in Kalamassery Municipality. Besides, the company should deposit the PWD rate with the Municipality. We are not ready to accept the 10 per cent bank guarantee for giving the permission to carry out the project. So, we decided to send a show cause notice to the company seeking an explanation in this illegal road cutting,” said Aboobakar.
The project, which was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in February 2016, envisages gas supply to domestic, commercial, industrial and transportation sectors in the Ernakulam geographical area covering 3,504 sq km. IOAGPL will be investing about `435 crore in the project over a period of five years to set up the pipeline network across the district. The company has already provided piped gas connection to 1,000 homes in Kalamassery.