CHENNAI: Come Monday and Tamil Nadu will formally get its petroleum artery when Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi will dedicate the Chennai-Tiruchi-Madurai petroleum product pipeline.

The cross-country pipeline to move petrol, diesel and kerosene is the first facility of its kind for the Indian Oil Corporation in south India. It will move the products from the refinery of the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited, a group company of IOC, in suburban Manali to other parts of the State.

The longest such facility within a single State — the 683-km pipeline runs through 11 districts — promises safer, economical and environment-friendly movement of the products. From the perspective of the consumer, product movement by pipeline is the best, as scope for adulteration is little.

According to CPCL managing director K.K. Acharya, the pipeline was promoted by the IOC to ensure efficient and effective supply chain management. It would feed "major load centres in the south" up to Tiruchi and Madurai, and through its Sankari arm, the western districts of Tamil Nadu. A significant benefit of the pipeline is that it provides an alternative to the road transport of the products, which contributes to vehicular congestion and air pollution and is not the safest. It would reduce evaporation/handling loss of the products, says Mr. Acharya.

Besides the pipeline, the project includes marketing facilities in Tiruchi, a depot at Sankari and a terminal in Madurai, according to the IOC.

The throughput in the network during the first phase of operation will be 1.8 million tonnes a year.

The pipeline comes after the recent expansion and modernisation of the CPCL that enhanced the capacity of its Manali refinery to 9.5 million tonnes. The capacity will be further increased to 11.2 million tonnes by 2008. The dedication of the pipeline, in the presence of Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, will signal the completion of the project conceived almost a decade ago and mark the end of major petroleum projects announced by the public sector oil companies. It will provide an opportunity for Tamil Nadu to seek fresh investments in the sector.

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