Trichy: The renovation process of an Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) pipeline at Kathiramangalam which developed a crack last month, was done on Tuesday amidst police protection.Around 150 police personnel were deployed for security and to ensure that the general public wouldn’t stage a demonstration and disrupt the renovation process.
Using poclain machines, the damaged underground pipelines were replaced under the supervision of the ONGC officials. Thiruvidaimarudur tahsildar Rajeshwari and other officials from the revenue department were also present during the renovation work.
The pipeline, belonging to ONGC developed a crack on April 27 and reportedly caused crude oil spillage which in turn caused damage to paddy crops in the land owned by a farmer named Natarajan.
The pipeline is used to pass crude oil from wells in Kathiramangalam to the ONGC refinery unit in Kuthalam.
Though the ONGC officials immediately fixed the leak and stopped the oil transportation for close to 20 days. The leak caused the local residents to stage a sit-in protest for a few days.
Since May last year, villagers have been staging extensive protests opposing the oil and gas extraction process at Kathiramangalam alleging that it would adversely affect agriculture in the region.