Prime Minister Narendra Modi
| Photo Credit: Shahbaz Khan
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Telangana on October 1 will commission the Hassan-Cherlapalli LPG pipeline of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and lay foundation of the Krishnapatnam-Hyderabad multi-product pipeline conceived by Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL).
Involving an investment in excess of ₹4,100 crore, the two projects will be crucial oil industry assets augmenting supply of petroleum products, complementing the existing infrastructure and contributing to economic progress of the region.
Built at a cost of about ₹2,170 crore, the LPG or cooking gas pipeline from Hassan in Karnataka to Cherlapalli, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, provides a safe, cost-efficient and eco-friendly mode of LPG transportation and distribution in the region. It is a tap off from the Mangalore-Bengaluru LPG pipeline. According to official data, the 650-km Hassan-Cherlapalli facility has an authorised capacity of 2.20 million tonne per annum.
Two bottling plants
It will connect HPCL’s bottling plant in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, before reaching Cherlapalli, which is one of the two bottling plants of the company in Telangana, and prior to the pipeline received LPG by road or rail. Warangal hosts the other plant of HPCL in the State.
On the significance, beyond the economic and environmental benefits of the move away from road and rail transportation, oil industry sources said the Hassan-Cherlapalli pipeline, if required, could supply to LPG bottling plants of Indian Oil Corporation in Thimmapur, near Hyderabad, as well as BPCL’s Kurnool plant. Another possibility is of the pipeline overtime getting connected to the Vizag-Secunderabad facility, the workhorse of HPCL in the region, to emerge as a east-west coast cross-country link. For now, the formal commissioning of the pipeline will translate into assurance for LPG customers of the oil company in the region.
Multiproduct pipeline
Similarly, BPCL’s Krishnapatnam-Hyderabad multi-product petroleum pipeline, for which the Prime Minister will lay foundation, will be crucial to the consumers in terms of product availability. The 425-km pipeline will be built at a cost of around ₹1,940 crore.
It will be designed to handle 2.6 million tonnes per annum of product and serve as a vital link between BPCL’s POL Terminal in Krishnapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, and its petroleum storage terminal in Malkapur, near Hyderabad. It will pass through SPSR Nellore, Prakasam, Bapatla and Palnadu districts in A.P. and Nalgonda, and Yadadri Bhuvanagiri districts in Telangana.
The company said, as part of the project, the tankage capacity at the terminal in Krishnapatnam will increase from 1 lakh KL (kilolitres) to 1.64 lakh KL. The pipeline project, expected to be completed by October 2025, will incorporate advanced safety measures, including Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Pipeline Intrusion Detection System (PIDS) for real-time monitoring, control and data acquisition.
