Petronet’s Andhra terminal in trouble

The LNG terminal proposed by Petronet at Gangavaram port on the East coast has run into rough weather with the locals opposing the project on the ground that it would pollute the coast and hit the livelihood of the fishermen in the area.

The officials of the revenue department of Visakhapatnam district and the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board on Thursday conducted a public hearing on the project, which is proposed to come up with an outlay of `4,500 crore and a capacity of about five million tonne (mt) with a provision to scale it up to 10 mt.

The locals, particularly from nearby villages including Dibbapalem and Gangavaram and the environment groups, have told the officials they were not in favour of the project owing to environment concerns.

Amid ramped-up security and deployment of security personnel, the officials recorded the views of those attending the public hearing.

“There are views in favour and opposition. It would take a week for us to prepare a report on this,” an official said.

However, those opposing the project said that the views of the locals were not taken in to account even at the time of setting up of the Gangavaram port.

Activists have also questioned the validity of the agreement between Petronet and Gangavaram port.

According to them, Gangavaram Port Ltd was not competent to alienate the land given to it for developing the port in favour of any other party.

On the issue, Petronet said in a statement, “LNG Terminal in itself is a zero-emission project and causes no pollution. The terminal will need around 120 acre of land. Out of this, around 40 acre belong to Gangavaram Port and balance 80 acre need to be reclaimed.”