LNG terminal: prospects brighten for power plant

KOCHI: Decisions at a high-level meeting convened by Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on the progress of work on the proposed LNG terminal brighten the prospects for a 1,200-mW gas-based power generation plant on Puthuvype Island, close to the proposed LNG receiving and re-gasification facilities within the Special Economic Zone.

The meeting, in the State capital on Wednesday, decided to set up a single-window facility for acquisition of land for laying pipeline from Kochi to Mangalore and Kayamkulam. The post of a Deputy Collector would also be created specially to speed up the land acquisition process.

It was decided that a meeting would be convened soon in Kochi on the proposal from PLL for setting up a power-generation facility. The proposal ran into trouble after a dispute over the ownership of a 40-hectare plot that the Cochin Port Trust identified as suitable for setting up the power generation unit.