The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : ATF pipeline work nearing completion

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Thursday, Nov 06, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

ATF pipeline work nearing completion

N. Ravi Kumar

Running across 93 km, it will offer a host of benefits

CHENNAI: A pipeline to directly move aviation turbine fuel from the refinery of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd in suburban Manali to the storage facilities of Indian Oil Corporation inside the airport in Meenambakkam is in final stages of completion.

On commissioning, likely sometime next month, the pipeline running across 93 km would offer a host of benefits starting with the end of the existing system of transporting the fuel in tanker trucks from IOC’s Tondiarpet terminal.

The pipeline transfer would mean relatively safe and faster movement of the fuel, savings on diesel used for the transporting by the tanker trucks now, and contributing to a cleaner environment by not plying the vehicles, said V. K. Jayachandran, Executive Director, IOC (Tamil Nadu State Office).

The ATF pipeline, second such facility of the IOC in south India — the other in Karnataka was commissioned recently — would also be a solution to the pilferage reported sometimes during the transit by road.

At present, around 50-60 tanker trucks transported about 1,000 kilo litres of ATF every day from the Tondiarpet terminal to the airport. Accidents involving heavy vehicles are also not uncommon during their roundtrip of about 80 km in which city roads are avoided.

Though the eight-inch diameter pipeline would initially be used only by the IOC, which supplies three-fourth of the ATF requirement at the airport, it would eventually be made available to the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd later on payment.

The pipeline, at the cost of little over Rs.48.50 crore, was taken along a circuitous route keeping in mind the inconveniences, if it was laid underground, on congested city roads. From Manali, the pipeline has been taken along the existing Chennai-Tiruchi-Madurai product pipeline of the IOC, moved in north-westerly direction along the western bank of Buckingham Canal to join the CTM pipeline near the Ennore-Tiruvottiyur Expressway. From there, it runs along with the CTM route up to Valarpuram village in Sriperumbudur. It then takes an easterly direction crossing the National Highway-4, Chennai Bypass Road, Adyar River and enters the airport. Within the airport, it traverses around 6 km along the boundary wall before terminating at the existing storage facilities.

A part of the pipeline inside the airport taxiways was laid by adopting horizontal directional drilling, to reduce the cutting and restoration of thick concrete pavements and operational convenience.

When the new airport proposed near Sriperumbudur, takes shape, the pipeline could be easily extended.

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