Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on January 5 inaugurated the much delayed 450-km Kochi - Mangalore natural gas pipeline which traverses the southern states of Kerala and Karnataka.  

He said the pipeline, which has been built by state-run Gail, would become the base of the gas distribution system in many cities and would form the base of the CNG based transport system in these cities. The pipeline would provide clean energy to Mangalore refinery and would play a major role in reducing the pollution in both the states, he added. 

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This comes as good news for Petronet LNG’s under-used Kochi LNG import terminal. The new pipeline will supply gas to the fertilizer, refinery and petrochemical sectors of Mangalore and other areas.  

The Kochi terminal, south India's first LNG receiving, regasification and reloading facility, has a nameplate capacity of 5mn metric tons/yr and was commissioned in 2013.