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Kerala has launched a Facebook campaign to convince people of the benefits of cheap and clean energy in the face of stiff resistance from local residents against laying gas pipelines across the state.
The state, which is heavily dependent on grossly inadequate hydropower projects to meet its energy requirement, was hoping to end its power crisis with the Petronet LNG terminal going on stream in Kochi in a couple of months.
The completed and soon-to-be-commissioned Rs43bn Kochi terminal has the capacity to import, store and re-gasify 5mn tonne of liquified natural gas.
The Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), the state’s arm to promote industries, inked a Rs20bn deal with Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) to promote city gas distribution activities and to supply compressed natural gas for vehicles.
The company committed to provide fuel for vehicles by setting up CNG stations across the state through its joint venture, Kerala GAIL Gas Ltd, which would also supply piped natural gas (PNG) to households, industries and commercial establishments.
However, inspired by fringe groups masquerading as environmentalists, GAIL is facing protests wherever they go with their pipeline project even as the state faces an acute power crisis due to shortage of water in its hydropower reserves.
Local residents oppose laying the pipelines fearing these might explode and they would lose their properties. The activists have been fanning their fears.
KSIDC’s Facebook posts state the campaigners have vested interests and were suppressing the fact that natural gas would reduce pollution and it’s cheap, clean and safe. It would end power cuts and load shedding faced by the state, they said. “Natural gas is the fuel of the future. Those who oppose it are hampering the state’s growth,” reads another post on Facebook. “It’s expected to bring about an impetus to the state’s policy of sustained and green industrial development”.
The GAIL’s Rs40bn pipeline project also include linkage to the National Thermal Power Corporation’s (NTPC) power station at Kayamkulam and the other to the eastern Kochi’s industrial hub. An agreement has already been signed by the latter for LNG purchase.
Kerala was also hoping to set up an industrial corridor along the pipeline to Coimbatore from Kochi, a proposal by the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF), and the augmentation to raise capacity of NTPC Kayamkulam to 1,400MW was to be completed this year.
The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) was planning to set up a new 1,026MW power project at its Brahmapuram facility while the BSES plans to generate 200MW of additional power at its Kalamassery plant, currently naphtha-fired.
