Tankers carry petroleum products including naphtha, HSD and LPG through world's 18 most eco-sensitive hotspots.
The stretch of national highway 75 (formerly 48) between Mangalore and Bangalore is fast turning into frequent freak accident zone.
The LPG tanker fire at Perne village on Tuesday brought into focus the practice of oil companies in Mangalore continuing to use tankers to transport hazardous petroleum products, despite the existence of a pipeline fully equipped to transport the oil products between Thokur (Mangalore) and Devargundi (in Nelamangala near Bangalore).
The Mangalore-Bangalore pipeline project(MBPP)was one of the three petro-product pipeline projects laid by Petronet in South India, the other two being the Kochi-Coimbatore pipeline and the Chennai-Tiruchi-Madurai pipeline.
The objective of laying the pipelines was keep the transportation of hazardous petroleum products off the roads with safety being the primary objective and lowering of cost as the secondary aim. The corridor also has enough space for laying a gas pipeline between the two cities, according to Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) officials. The LNG pipeline that has reached Mangalore from Kochi will be further expanded eastward.
The pipeline should have reduced the transportation of petroleum products through the road using tankers, but according to sources in the petroleum transport business, over 2,000 tankers still ply between the two cities daily, passing through the eco-sensitive areas of Shirady Ghat and towns and villages all along the highway between Mangalore and Bangalore.
The tankers belong with big trucking companies in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Bullet tankers, as they are called, are unstable vehicles that are prone to accidents lot of damage to life and property, and also to the environment. The tankers carry petroleum products including naphtha, HSD, LPG and chemicals through world’s 18 most eco-sensitive hotspots.
According to sources at the Police outpost in Nelyadi, there have been 10 accidents involving tankers over the past three years and in each case, noxious gases and liquid petroleum have leaked out, endangering human safety and environment in the area. No passenger vehicle passing through the national highway has been involved in a collision with a petroleum carrier so far, but this stretch of the highway could turn a killing field if tankers are allowed to ply as recklessly as they do currently.
But, for some unexplained reason, the oil companies have not been able to resist their addiction to tankers. Office-bearers of trade Unions in Mangalore attribute the oil companies reluctance to use the pipeline to pressure from the tanker lobby in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
A tanker contractor of HPCL at Namakkal in Tamil Nadu says: “We have invested crores of rupees in the fleet. 80% of the vehicles are new and are hypothecated to the nationalized banks. If we do not get contracts, the owners will be without jobs and the banks will be in losses. Presently, almost all refineries have begun using oil pipeline grid of the Petronet India Limited and only a small portion of the production of refineries are being sent through oil tankers.”
Officials of HPCL were not available for comment and a group of officials arrived at the spot of accident only at 3pm though the fire and police officials had intimated them within minutes of the accident at Perne.
@mraghuram12
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