Mangaluru-Kochi gas pipeline to be ready by year-end: minister

Mangaluru-Kochi gas pipeline to be ready by year-end: minister

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Mar 26 2018: Addressing media here on March 25, Sunday,  Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said  Kochi-Mangaluru natural gas pipeline will be ready by the end of the calendar year.   He said that the gas terminal in Kerala was completed six years ago, but the said pipeline was yet to be laid. Now, the work on the pipeline is in full swing. The work is expected to be completed by October-November.

The minister said that the merger process of MRPL (Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd) and OMPL (ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Limited) was in the final stages.

He said that the expansion process of MRPL will start from the current year. The scope of investment towards the expansion will be around Rs 70,000 crore. The capacity of the refinery will increase from 15 million metric tonnes to 25 million metric tonnes and this will create employment opportunities and bring in additional revenue. After the expansion, the plant will also be oriented towards petrochemical and chemical products along with petrol, diesel and LPG.

The minister said that he would persuade the GST council to bring petroleum products under GST, so that the companies as well as the customers are benefited. Some states are apprehensive about the returns. However, things were moving towards consensus and petroleum products would hopefully come under GST by July, he said.

Karnataka is among the fastest states to achieve the target under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala scheme, providing LPG connections to households, he said. Till date, Karnataka has achieved 89% of the target and will achieve 100% of the target by the next few months, Pradhan said. Out of the 1.47 crore rural households in the state, 81 lakh households have LPG connections, 50 lakh additional connections were made after 2014, he added.

Congress has a divisive agenda, he said: The Karnataka government has totally neglected the development of the state, which has a lot of potential, criticized Dharmendra Pradhan, minister of petroleum and natural gas and minister of skill development and entrepreneurship.


Pradhan,  took a dig at the state government adding “The state government has no development agenda.” “The Congressdivide the people on the basis of caste and religion. It is their strategy of development. Law and order is a serious problem, and corruption is at its peak in the state,” he alleged.

Explaining how they will counter the Congress in the ensuing assembly polls, he said the BJP will intensify its fight against corruption, the division of society and by projecting the development agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “The BJP is well prepared for the challenge of assembly elections in the state. Former chief minister B S Yedyurappa is our visionary leader from Karnataka,” he added