The construction site of the pipeline project at Sandhakuda near Paradip. Telegraph picture

Paradip, July 26: The Jagatsinghpur district administration stopped Indian Oil Corporation Limited’s underground pipeline-laying work at Sandhakuda on the ground that the company had been undertaking the project without administrative clearances.

“The pipeline-laying has been stopped. Company authorities were served show cause notice for carrying out unauthorised construction. The state government owns the 117-acre land, where the work was going on. However, the company did not seek permission in regard of work execution,” said Paradip additional district magistrate Ramakrishna Sahu.

Installation of underground pipeline is being carried out by the oil company for the movement of imported crude oil from Paradip port to the oil refinery project site.

The company officials were accorded permission for land use at seaside Sandhakuda for the project. But, the revenue department owns the said patch. The joint survey by the port and the government had identified the Sandhakuda land as a state government land. On the other hand, the oil company was sanctioned permission by Paradip Port Trust for its construction. “The port trust was not authorised to do so as the ownership of the land lied with the state government,” said an official.

The seaside land had been leased out to the port trust in 1999 in the aftermath of super cyclone solely for the purpose of carrying out plantation activities. The natural calamity then had almost wiped out the entire green cover from Paradip.

The port trust had also been directed to pay Rs 14 crore towards land premium charge to the state government. But, it is yet to pay the premium charge, said Kujang tehsildar Basudeb Sadangi.

As the use of state government land without prior authorisation is an act of impropriety, the company has been asked to furnish a compliance report in this connection, he said.

Senior assistant estate officer of the Paradip Port Trust K. Thirumoolar refused to comment on the issue and said that matter was sub-judice. Deputy general manager (corporate communications of the Paradip Oil Refinery) Sangram Mishra said: “The oil company was accorded the Right of Way (RoW) rights by the port trust for the dispatch of crude oil from the south jetty to the refinery site through underground pipelines. Before laying the pipelines, the district administration had approved the forest conversion of the land which had tree cover. The ministry of environment and forest had also given clearance to the pipeline project and accorded the coastal regulation zone consent to it. As the administration has raised objection to it, the company is looking into the legal modalities.”