The Hindu Business Line : AP Govt shelves Kakinada LNG terminal project

THE mega LNG terminal project, proposed to be set up here by the previous Telugu Desam Government, has been disposed by the Congress Government. It has been shelved.

The project cost at Rs 19,000 crore was to have been invested in phases.

This was announced by the Chief Minister, Dr. Y.S Rajasekhara Reddy, at a press meet here on Sunday. In response to a question on the fate of the LNG terminal proposed by the Telugu Desam Government, Dr Reddy said he had expressed reservations about the project on the floor of the Assembly when it was first announced by the then Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu.

"The appraisal of the project was done in a haphazard manner. The user industries were not identified. Moreover, huge gas reserves had been discovered in the Krishna-Godavari basin by then. Therefore, we (the Congress party) were not convinced of the feasibility of the project.

"At any rate, I am not bound by the promises made by Mr Chandrababu Naidu," he told newspersons.

Originally, the projects was proposed to be set up on the Hope Island in the Bay of Bengal here but the Union Ministry of Environment did not clear the proposal. Therefore, changing the location to the shore, the State Government had then sent a revised proposal. The project had got stuck at that stage. Subsequently, there were elections and the Governments had changed both at the Centre and the State.

In response to a question on the future of the Kakinada anchorage port, the Chief Minister asserted that his Government was committed to protecting the old port and the livelihood of 10,000 fishermen dependent on it.

"We cannot undo all that the Telugu Desam Government did and rewrite history. The Telugu Desam Government had then handed over the new deep-water port to a private consortium, the Kakinada Seaports Ltd.

He said the Government would strive to develop the Kakinada-Visakhapatnam zone as an industrial corridor.

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