300 objections have been filed to date against the overland section of the natural gas pipeline, according to a document by Ministry of National Infrastructures director general Eli Ronen. The pipeline will cost $400 million to build.
The objections filed with the district planning and building commissions include objections by private landowners in Daliat el-Carmel, Isfiya, and Baqa el-Garbiyeh; objections by the Menashe Alona local council and Rosh Ha'Ayin municipality against gas station sites that will require land expropriation; objections in principle over the district planning and building commissions' authority and procedures for issuing building permits; objections over the damage to vistas, conflicts with approved plans, and safety and security problems; objections by the Cross-Israel Highway company, Mekorot National Water Company, Petroleum and Energy Infrastructures, Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel Railways, and the Ministry of Finance; objections by the Haifa municipality; and objections related to compensation.
The National Outline Plan for the pipeline's overland section is National Outline Plan 37. Ronen said that, unexpectedly, only a third of the pipeline's route ran alongside the Cross-Israel Highway, while the rest went through private and public land.
Ronen said the pipeline plan had already been under discussion for three years, but the objections stage had only been reached, and changes might have to be made to the National Outline Plan. He believes that petitions will be filed with the courts, nor have all the security and pipeline protection problems been solved. He predicts that the pipeline will only be ready in late 2008.
Commenting on the Reading power station in Tel Aviv, which is due to receive natural gas, Ronen said the land entry to the power station had already been approved under the National Outline Plan, but had been cancelled, due to objections by the Tel Aviv municipality. The pipeline to the Reading power station is scheduled for completion in 2010. Ronen said an undersea pipeline could bring this date forward.
Ronen said a number of objections had been filed against the pipeline to the Hagit power station near Yokne'am. The pipeline is scheduled for completion in late 2007.
Minister of National Infrastructures Joseph Paritzky recently said a combined undersea and overland pipeline was preferable, in order to expedite the flow of natural gas.
Ronen said the southern section of the pipeline had been approved, but changes to the plan were necessary, because the Beer Sheva municipality objected to the pipeline passing through the area covered by the city's metropolitan master plan, and because Bedouin structures exist along the pipeline's approved routes.
Israel Railways has reservations about the proximity of the pipeline to the railway south of the Pi Glilot facility in Ashdod.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on December 22, 2003