New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate the Kochi-Mangaluru natural gas pipeline to the nation through video conferencing at 11 am on 5 January 2021. This program will be an important milestone towards the creation of ‘One Nation, One Gas Grid’. Along with the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the Governor and Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Kerala will also be present on the occasion.
A total of 450 km of this pipeline has been constructed by GAIL (India) Limited. It has a transport capacity of 12 million metric standard cubic meters per day and is located in Mangaluru (Dakshina Kannada district) from Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod districts from the reclamation terminal of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) at Kochi (Kerala). , Karnataka). The total cost of this project was about 3000 crores and during its construction more than 12 lakh man-days of employment were created. From the engineering point of view the laying of this pipeline was a challenge as it was necessary for the pipeline to cross the water bodies at more than 100 places on its route. This challenging task was accomplished through a special technique called horizontal directional drilling method.
With the help of this pipeline, piped natural gas (PNG) in the homes of common people and compressed natural gas (CNG) in the transport sector will provide environmentally friendly and inexpensive fuel. The pipeline will also supply natural gas to the commercial and industrial units of the districts en route. Curbing air pollution through consumption of clean fuels will help improve air quality.