GAIL natural gas pipeline fulfils government's promise to people: Kerala CM

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], January 6 : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said that the commissioning of the GAIL liquid natural gas (LNG) pipeline was a fulfilment of the promise made by the state government to the people.
He was speaking during the virtual inauguration ceremony of the Rs 3,000 crore Kochi-Mangalore LNG pipeline project by Prime Minister Narendra Modi held yesterday.

In his address, the CM said, "The government overcame all obstacles of the project by addressing the legitimate concerns of the people," and recalled that in 2014, GAIL had suspended all work on the pipeline due to several issues that cropped up.
"Of the 450 km long Kochi-Mangalore pipeline, 414 km is in Kerala. It is natural for people to face difficulties when implementing big development projects but despite these problems, they cooperated with the project. This happened because the government was able to convince them that this project is crucial for the all-round development of Kerala," he added.

The project was completed after overcoming many legal hurdles and protests. The biggest challenge was to lay the pipe through densely populated areas, hilly areas and under rivers but GAIL officials worked resolutely to complete the project.

The CM congratulated GAIL officials, District administrators, police and other government departments who worked together to overcome the problems. He also congratulated the workers who toiled tirelessly to complete the project despite challenges like the floods, the Nipah virus and the Covid pandemic.

The GAIL pipeline project to pipe natural gas from the Kochi LNG terminal to Mangalore and Bangalore was approved by the Central Government in 2010 but until 2016, only 48 kilometres of the pipeline could be completed.