Green nod for petroleum storage facility at Vizag

The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) has issued a 'no objection' certificate to set up an underground petroleum storage terminal at Visakhapatnam.

As part of strategic petroleum reserves storage project, the Union government has decided to build one underground petroleum crude storage facility at Visakhapatnam for which the Visakhapatnam port and Indian Navy have allotted 2.7 lakh square metres area.

The government has formed a new company called, Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited, which would spend about Rs 611 crore on the project.

"After the satisfactory completion of public hearing in July, the pollution control board sanctioned relevant permissions to the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited to take up the project. Now we are waiting for similar permissions from the Union ministry of environment and forest," K Sreerama Murty, district environmental engineer, APPCB, told Business Standard.

The company will construct two caverns with 10-lakh tonne storage capacity at below 30 metres from the main sea level.