With the National Green Tribunal (NGT) clearing the way, resumption of work on the the LPG storage facility on the Puthuvype Island will depend on the State government decision. Indian Oil Corporation officials said here on Wednesday that they awaited the green signal as the government had requested a pause on the work after people living near the project site launched a protest airing concerns about their safety.
The work was stopped on February 16, 2017 after the Puthuvype LPG Terminal Virudha Janakiya Samara Samiti intensified the protest. The Chennai Bench of the NGT on December 22, 2017 issued an order rejecting the plea of the islanders seeking the cancellation of the environmental clearance for the project.
The cooking gas import terminal is being established in two parts, one comprising the LPG shipment receiving jetty at the Multi-User Liquid Terminal (MULT) for unloading the imported gas and the storage facility. The storage facility project has come under attack from the local residents.
The projects had received the environmental clearance as well as clearance from the Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation, said the IOC officials. The total project cost is ₹715 crore with MULT costing ₹225 crore and the storage facility costing ₹490 crore.
The officials said that the LPG jetty and storage facility had been planned to be built in tandem so that any one component of the project did not lie idle for want of completion of the other. The progress of the works on the two project components was about 40% when the work on the storage facility was stopped in February 2017.
As of now, the work on the LPG receiving jetty is near complete and it will lie idle as the work on the storage facility has been stalled totally.
The MULT jetty is designed to handle a total of 4.52 million tonnes a year, which includes LPG, crude oil, and diesel. The MULT jetty, with a sea depth of 13.5 metre, will also enable very large crude and gas carriers to bring cargo, the officials said.
