Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be virtually inaugurating the Kochi-Mangaluru GAIL pipeline on January 5, 2021. CM Vijayan told reporters that it is a matter of happiness that the project would be launched by the Prime Minister.
“Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan called yesterday. He informed that the Prime Minister consented to virtually inaugurate the Kochi-Mangaluru GAIL pipeline on January 5,” CM Vijayan said. It is a matter of happiness that the natural gas pipeline project, believed to never materialise, was finally ready and Prime Minister Modi will be inaugurating it.
The 444-km long natural gas pipeline project was launched in 2009 at an estimated cost of about Rs 2,915 crore and as to be commissioned in 2014. But opposition on the safety and commercial grounds wherein the acquisition of land from both political parties as well as public was the main hurdle which had left the project hanging fire. This led the project to cost nearly about double to over Rs 5,750 crore.