The stone quarries must be assign up 500 metres away from the underground BPCL pipeline.
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Environmentalists secure entreated the Tell govt to abolish the permits of stone quarries located inner 500 metres of the underground petroleum pipeline laid by the Bharat Petroleum Company Restricted (BPCL) in Karur, Tiruppur, and Coimbatore districts.
Quoting a letter from the BPCL, bought by R. Palanisamy of Karudayampalayam in Karur district below the Well suited to Info Act, R.S. Mugilan, coordinator, Tamil Nadu Atmosphere Security Motion, said the high-density pipeline had been laid to raise petroleum merchandise from Cochin Refinery to Coimbatore and Karur.
It had been laid after acquiring Well suited of Use (RoU) as per the provisions of the Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines Act, 1962. Of the different stones and granite quarries that fair in the Tell, some are located very stop to the petroleum pipeline. As per connected sections of the Act, security precautions must be belief of for blasting operations inner 500 metres of the pipeline.
The RTI reply extra said that a pre-work interrogate must be conducted by an permitted third-occasion surveyor sooner than any blasting exercise, with a written file outlining particular stipulations and changes to the blasting conception to provide protection to the pipeline. It shall be ensured that the height particle tempo (PPV) does no longer exceed two inches per 2d. The pipeline operator must be straight told if the PPV readings methodology or exceed this restrict, it added.
SOPs required
To boot to to that, a design qualification file for blasting inner 500 metres of the pipeline must be developed, witnessed by an permitted third-occasion surveyor and BPCL officers, as well to a Frequent Working Course of, specifying the replacement of detonators employed per blast to retain the PPV restrict.
The extra security precautions must be incorporated reckoning on the blueprint stipulations akin to the topography of assign, vogue of soil, and other components akin to rock strata, environmental, and atmospheric stipulations.
Mr. Mugilan alleged that several stone quarries at Kuppam, Karudayampalayam, Pavithram, Punnam and other villages in Karur district had been located stop to the pipeline. Out of about 335 quarries in Karur district, about 75 quarries fell inner a 500-metre radius of the pipeline.
Identical difficulty
The difficulty in Tiruppur and Coimbatore districts used to be an analogous, with different the quarries failing to agree to the stipulations of the BPCL.
The Tamil Nadu Air pollution Protect a watch on Board and other agencies had failed to monitor the safety features taken. Due to the this fact, the Tell govt must aloof take immediate steps to test whether the quarries had adopted the stipulations, he added.
The activist entreated the government to straight abolish the permits of those quarries that failed to implement the precautionary measures. Slackness would possibly perhaps well moreover lead to unhealthy penalties, he said.
Published – December 31, 2025 10:57 pm IST
