KOCHI: The Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) has come out against Cerana Foundation’s risk assessment report on the Puthuvypeen LPG project saying the foundation was not an accredited consultant of Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. Further, IOC said Cerana was neither competent nor authorised to comment on the veracity and validity of risk analysis report prepared by Project and Development India Ltd (PDIL), which was subjected to scrutiny through a public hearing held on August 25 and 26, 2009.
In an official release, IOC said during the public hearing process, the report was made available to government agencies.“One random report from an unaccredited foundation...can’t brush aside or nullify the collective wisdom of a score of statutory authorities who accepted and approved the Puthuvypeen project on the basis of PDIL’s Report,” the release said adding that the ALOHA software used by Cerana Foundation is an entry-level software and is not used for serious/ professional risk assessment in process industries.
“Further, the Cerana Foundation does not have detailed data about the LPG terminal, constructional details of various facilities and the safety systems (detection and protection) to properly carry out the study. In the absence of such data, their study might have been based on generic assumptions and hence the results are bound to be erratic, wide off the mark and misleading,” it said.