Farmers object to GAIL project at Erode

ERODE: Several farmers here are up in arms against the proposed Gas Authority of India Ltd project to lay a pipeline from Kochi to Bangalore via Erode district for transporting gas.

They have appealed to the Tamil Nadu government and the Gas Authority of India Ltd not to go ahead with the plan.

The farmers in a memorandum to the District Collector last evening stated that the GAIL proposed to dig trenches on agricultural lands in Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Namakkal, Salem and Dharmapuri districts to take the gas through pipelines.

In Erode district the proposed pipeline will pass through villages of Chennimalai, Avapoondurai, Mugasipulavampalayam, Koothampalayam, Vaipady, Ingure, Vellode, Uthukuli and some other villages,they said.

The farmers' representatives appealed to the State and Central Government to lay the pipelines via National Highways by digging roads instead of using fertile land.