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“It is politics and not environment, safety, or compensation issues that is affecting the 310-km natural gas pipeline project in Tamil Nadu,” said B.C. Tripathi, Chairman and Managing Director of GAIL (India) Ltd.
Facing farmers’ wrath in Tamil Nadu against the Kochi-Kuttanad-Mangalore-Bangalore gas pipeline project and with no support from the State Government, the public sector entity has moved the Madras High Court.
In an interview to Business Line , Tripathi maintained that the “best way to sort out the issue is through discussions. We have spoken to the State Government and are still ready to talk to them.” He said the disruption was not only impacting GAIL — its Rs 2,000 crore is stuck in the project — but also Petronet LNG’s Kochi LNG terminal, for which GAIL is unable to complete the gas evacuation route. Besides, industries in Tamil Nadu dependent on the gas, even the State Government’s revenues (Tamil Nadu is to get almost 4 mmscmd of gas) by way of taxes and levies would get hit. The power-deficit State will lose out on the fuel, Tripathi said.
Tripathi said that initially the State Government had extended support to the project; no pipeline network can be laid without States’ help. With the State Government’s support, GAIL had laid the initial 60/70-km stretch.
“But somewhere in between some lobby has got active, which seems is working for its own political gains.,” he added.
The Tamil Nadu Government has said GAIL will have to stop laying the pipeline across farmlands and instead align it with highways. Tripathi says this is unsafe. A cross-country natural gas pipeline passes through agricultural land for approximately 90 per cent of its length. Even now, some 30,000 km of operational pipelines run under farmland. Of this, more than 10,000 km was laid by GAIL in the last 25 years.
Tripathi said: “We have laid networks in Karnataka, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa on farmland. Nothing has happened. Pipelines are the safest mode of natural gas transportation.”
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