The state government on Tuesday submitted before the Kerala High Court that it was not in a position to resume the land belonging to the Cochin Port Trust allotted to Indian Oil Corporation for setting up the LPG terminal at Puthuvype in Vypin island. Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Petroleum submitted that it would not be in the interest of public to demand the surrender of the land.
The court had earlier directed the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to consider whether the IOC could be directed to surrender the land meant for setting up the LPG plant at Puthuvype to the state or the Central government.
The court had passed the order while considering a petition filed by E A Lalan of Vypeen seeking a directive to the governments to take urgent steps for the functioning of the LPG handling unit. The petitioner alleged inaction
on the part of the IOC in utilising the 37-acre land allotted by the CPT for setting up a storage facility for the import and distribution of LPG. In its statement, the state said that the land belonged to the CPT and the government had addressed the chairman of the CPT to do the needful for expediting the terminal. “The LPG import terminal is an approved project of the IOC in Kerala, with an estimated cost of Rs 170 crore and was granted all statutory clearance by the state through the single-window clearance board,” submitted MP Ranji, Additional Secretary to Government, Industries Department. The state submitted that the Multi User Liquid Terminal (MULT) is an off shore project proposal of the CPT for LPG unloading and POL cargo handling. “The tendering process for MULT is in progress. LPG to IOC’s storage tanks proposed at Puthuvype is to be fed through the pipelines from this berth. The project is scheduled for commissioning by the end of the third quarter of 2013,” state said. The government has appointed KSIDC as the nodal agency for facilitating an MoU between IOC and CPT for establishing an interim LPG unloading facility at the Cochin Oil Terminal in Wellington Island, till MULT is completed. However, the IOC officials had clarified that the CPT has sufficient capacity to handle the requirements of the project.