Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, October 10::
Even though the State Government had earlier announced that the gas bottling plant at Sekmai would be commissioned by December this year, the IOC has made it clear that it will not be possible to do so.
The gas bottling plant is being taken up by the IOC under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Disclosing this to The Sangai Express a well placed source said that though the State Govt had set its eyes on December to commission the Sekmai gas bottling plant, the IOC has made it clear that it will not be possible to do so as there is still a lot of work to be finalised.
One major impediment is the non-availability of abundant water in the area.
A well which was dug up earlier did not yield the requisite water, said the source adding that easy availability of water is essential to fight any outbreak of fire at the plant.
Though there is a plan to get the water from Sekmai river, nothing concrete has been done towards this so far.
The Sekmai bottling plant has the capacity to bottle 10,000 metric tons of LPG annually.
During a visit to the plant site, this reporter found that construction work of almost all the sections are over.
Officials at the site said that even if the plant is commissioned now, it will take sometime for the plant to commercially bottle the LPG gas.
Construction work of two water tanks with storage capacity of 250 kilolitres have been finalized.
The water tanks have been built to meet any emergency such as a fire breaking out.
However the sprinklers which are to be automatically activated once a fire starts are yet to be installed.
Of the four storage tanks, called bullets, that are to be set up there to store LPG, three have come up.
The total storing capacities of the four storage tanks is 150 metric tons.