Land acquisition process begins to lay crude oil Pipeline under Mundra-Panipat project

By Rajnish Singh
New Delhi [India] September 13 (ANI): The Central government has started the acquisition process of land to lay crude oil pipelines under the New Mundra-Panipat Pipeline Project by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).
The crude oil pipeline will be laid down starting from Chudva, a village located in Kachchh district in Gujarat to Panipat in Haryana.
The government took the decision to lay the crude oil pipeline considering "public interest".
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) made the announcement through a series of notifications issued last week regarding the acquisition of ROU (Right Of Use) in various districts of Rajasthan. The pipeline will pass through various regions falling in the jurisdiction of Nagaur, Jalore, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jodhpur and Pali districts in Rajasthan.
"Whereas, it appears to the Central Government that it is necessary in the public interest to lay Crude Oil Pipeline from Chudva to Panipat under New Mundra-Panipat pipeline project by Indian Oil Corporation Limited...," read the government's notification.
Further, the notice stated, "And whereas, it appears to the Central Government that for the purpose of laying the said pipeline, it is necessary to acquire the right of user in the land described in the schedule annexed to this notification".
Now, therefore, the notification mentions, "In the exercise of the powers conferred by Sub Section (1) of Section 3 of the Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in land) Act, 1962 (50 of 1962), the Central Government hereby declares its intention to acquire the right of users therein".
As per the notification, "any person interested in the land described in the said schedule may, within twenty-one days from the date on which the copies of this notification, as published in the Gazette of India, are made available to the General Public, the object in writing to the acquisition of the right of a user therein or laying of the pipeline under the land to Veerendra Singh Bankawat (Retd. IAS), Competent Authority, Rajasthan, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, New Mundra Panipat Pipeline Project". (ANI)
In December last year, state-run IOCL announced the setting up of a new crude oil pipeline system with a nameplate capacity of 17.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) from the port city of Mundra in Gujarat to its Panipat refinery in Haryana. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 9,028 crore, which also includes installing nine crude oil storage tanks of 60,000 kilolitres each at Mundra.
The new pipeline system and storage tanks would help in meeting the higher crude oil requirement after the expansion of IOCL's Panipat refinery. The Rs 32,946 crore expansion programme is currently underway at the refinery to increase its capacity from 15 MTPA to 25 MTPA.
The Mundra-Panipat crude oil pipeline project is expected to be completed in synchronization with the commissioning of refinery expansion, the company said. IOCL operates a network of more than 15,000 km long crude oil, petroleum product and gas pipelines. It added 337 km of additional pipeline length during Financial Year 2021. (ANI)