Date:14/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/14/stories/2008081459531000.htm

Andhra Pradesh

GAIL makes presentation on pipeline project

Staff Reporter

It has control rooms at four places
Helicopter patrolling being organised every month

Kakinada: A delegation of Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), led by General Manager S. Narayanan, has made a presentation on the disaster management plan pertaining to its Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad LPG pipeline (VSPL) project to Collector Gopalakrishna Dwivedi at DWMA conference hall here on Wednesday.

Mr. Narayanan said the 578 km-long VSPL has a capacity to transport 13,30,000 metric tons of LPG a year and it covers six districts -- Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy.

In East Godavari, the pipeline passes close to 55 villages covering a total distance of 100.8 km. The organisation was spreading awareness on activities that damage the pipeline which could in turn have disastrous consequences.

Pipeline markers were erected along its length and at important road points to keep human activity at bay.

Contingency plan

As regards contingency plans, Mr. Narayanan said GAIL has manned control rooms at Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry, Vijayawada and Secunderabad.

Operations would be shut down automatically in case of any emergency with information flowing from multiple data monitoring points. The GAIL stations at different places have fully-equipped ambulances at their disposal.

It was organising helicopter patrolling every month to locate any activity detrimental to the pipeline project and regular monitoring was done through an Enterprise Resource Planning package. Leak detection application software and continuous pipeline pressure profile monitoring were some of the disaster preparedness and mitigation measures.

In response to a suggestion by the Collector, Mr. Narayanan said he was prepared to depute his officers to act as members of a core group proposed to be constituted to deal with any emergency created by gas exploration and transportation activities in the district. The GAIL was not averse to extending and taking help from Reliance Industries, GSPC and other oil industry majors operating in East and West Godavari districts.

Joint Collector G.S.R.K.R. Vijay Kumar, SP Y. Nagi Reddy, GAIL officials A. Anbarasan and Satyanarayana and others participated in the programme.