State-run natural gas transmission firm GAIL India is in the process of laying 42 km underground gas pipeline in Tirupur district of Tamil Nadu.
However, the project faces roadblock as farmers in the area oppose the work on grounds that they may lose their livelihood.
But GAIL is learnt to argue that it fixed the alignment only on the basis of a scientific study. Farming activities will be disturbed only for a brief period while laying the pipelines for which compensation was earmarked.
Members of the All India Kissan Sabha, CPI (M) and few farmers are said to be opposing the project, which would transport liquefied natural gas from Kochi to Bangalore. The opposition came at Mullainaickennur hamlet in Uthukuli block.
Protesters want GAIL India to avoid farm lands for laying pipelines as it could affect the livelihood of the agrarian community. But GAIL does not want to change the choice of the land for the project and has also raised the compensation amount recently by almost eight fold from the rates fixed earlier.
GAIL argues that a major portion of lands through which the pipelines pass in the district were lying barren without any standing crops.
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