PM to virtually inaugurate Kochi-Mangaluru GAIL pipeline

Thiruvananthapuram: Prime Minister Narendra Modi would virtually inaugurate the Kochi-Mangaluru GAIL pipeline on January 5, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Thursday.

Vijayan told reporters here that it was a matter of happinessthat the Prime Minister had agreed to launch the natural gas pipeline project.

"Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan called yesterday. He informed that the Prime Minister consented to virtually inaugurate the Kochi-MangaluruGAIL pipeline on January 5," he said.

It was a matter of happiness that a project, believed to never materialise, was finally ready and the Prime Minister himself was inaugurating it, the Chief Minister added.

The 444-km long pipeline was launched in 2009 at an estimated cost of Rs 2,915 crore and was to be commissioned in 2014.

But opposition on safety and commercial grounds wherein the land price was the main hurdle, both from political parties and the public, had left the project hanging fire.

This had led to the project cost nearly doubling to over Rs 5,750 crore.