The Kochi-Mangaluru natural gas pipeline project is ready for commissioning as natural gas company GAIL (India) has completed the final 540 m stretch across the Chandragiri river in northern Kerala. The 444 km long natural gas pipeline was launched in 2009 at an estimated cost of Rs 2,915 crore and was suppose to be commissioned in 2014. However opposition on safety and commercial grounds wherein the land price was the main hurdle resulted in delay in project. This resulted in the project cost nearly doubling to over Rs 5,750 crore.
The pipeline is charged up to Kannur now, and is live up to Kuttanand in Palakkad district; 90 km north of Kochi since June 2019 and of the remaining 354 km the line is ready up to Kannur. Kuttanad is the main junction of the project as from here the line bifurcates to Mangaluru and Bengaluru. Phase-I of the project was commissioned in August 2013 in the Kochi metropolitan area with industrial supplies and domestic supplies from February 2016 by Adani Gas.
With the commissioning of the pipeline, gas demand in the state will touch 80-90 million cu m per annum from current 60 million cu m. The pipeline will provide a big boost to the Kochi LNT Terminal of Petronet which has a capacity of five million tonne annually, but 90 per cent capacity has been idling due to the delay in completing the Kochi-Mangaluru natural gas pipeline and with the commissioning the capacity utilisation of the LNG terminal will go up to 25-30 per cent. Apart from environmental gains, the State can also gain monetarily as the project can get up to Rs 1,000 crore by way of taxes alone. Also, supplying to the Kochi region alone helps the state earn over Rs 340 crore annually in tax revenue, as per reports.