GAIL’s Kochi-Mangaluru pipeline hits roadblock again

The long-awaited commissioning of the Kochi-Mangaluru natural gas pipeline is likely to miss the target date of May because of the reported delay in carrying out river-crossing works at the Chandragiri and Netravati rivers in Kasargodu and Mangaluru.

Earlier it was the public protests in the Malabar region that had held up the project.

It is more than five years since the LNG terminal of Petronet LNG was commissioned in Kochi. GAIL (India) Ltd was entrusted with the responsibility of laying the 550-km pipeline from Kochi to Mangaluru. The deadline for completion of work was December 2018, but was extended to March following the Kerala floods and later to May, said MP Sukumaran Nair, Director of the Kochi-based Green Technology and Management.