Panipat-Jalandhar LPG pipeline stones found dislocated

Rachna Khaira

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 28

Stones that identifying the right of way (RoW) over the Panipat-Jalandhar LPG pipeline were on Tuesday found dislocated due to illegal encroachments in Karol Bagh here in the city.

This poses a serious threat to the entire city as it would be difficult to locate and dig open the pipeline in case of some eventuality. While the restricted area also known as the right of way over the pipeline was identified as 55 ft, the distance varies at each milestone located in the area. While at some places, it was found to be 55 ft, at some places it fluctuates between 40 ft to 65 ft. Some of the milestones were found to have been engraved deep inside the construction material of some newly built houses. Also, some milestones could be seen located inside the boundary walls of some under-construction houses. At some places, people have even taken them out and in place laid strong foundations of their newly constructed houses.

Also, a private school is using the area as a play ground and also seems to have constructed a concrete wall on it to support the temporary structure around the ground. Though, Tarvinder Singh, chairman of DIPS Institutions, denied concrete wall to have been constructed on the right of way, the claim appeared baffled due to the dislocation of the marking stones.

Also, a school employee confirmed that the IOCL officials have tried to dig open the pipeline in December last year for some maintenance work but could not locate it near the school.

Also, many other encroachments were found to have been carried out on the right of way over the pipeline. While sources claimed that many residential houses have even managed to get NOC from the Municipal Corporation for the houses built on right of way, the corporation itself has built many concrete roads over it.

Despite giving a week’s time to respond, the IOCL authorities failed to provide any suitable reply to ‘the Tribune’ over the encroachments that happened over the pipeline at Succhi Pind and also in Karol Bagh area in the city.

Overview of Panipat-Jalandhar LPG Pipeline

The 273-km Panipat-Jalandhar LPG pipeline is the first cross country LPG pipeline that was commissioned on December 5, 2008. It was commissioned to simultaneously meet the requirement of LPG at Indian Oil’s LPG bottling plants at Jalandhar and Nabha in Punjab, Una and Baddi in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Leh in J&K.

Legal action

The PPM Act empowers the Court of the District and Sessions Judge within the local limits of the jurisdiction to hold an inquiry and cause the building, structure and tree removed. It can direct the cost of such removal or filling up to be recovered from the occupier/owner in the same manner as order for the recovery of such cost were a decree made by the court.