THE state government and contractors have denied the Energy for Regions natural gas rollout will be axed.
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Yesterday’s Weekly Times reported the axe was ready to fall on the project after Minister for Regional Development Jaala Pulford said the project, a key 2010 election promise of the previous Coalition government, was a white elephant.
But in a statement released yesterday, Ms Pulford said while the project was still considered “a dud” it would not be canned and rollout contractors Brookfield Infrastructure said there was no change as far as it was concerned.
“We are still determining the full extent of the former government’s mismanagement and it’s effect on rural communities,” Minister Pulford said.
“Despite the mess of the previous government has made of the roll out, it will continue under a Labor government.”
Brookfield Infrastructure signed contracts last September to deliver the $85 million rollout to 11 towns around Victoria, including Terang. It signalled a successful end to a 20-year campaign to have Terang connected to natural gas.
The Terang connection will involve compressed natural gas being transported to a “daughter station” on the outskirts of the town and a reticulated pipeline system then delivering it to homes.
Brookfield subsidiary TasGas will rollout the program in Terang and commercial manager Simon Himson said as far as the company was concerned it was full steam ahead.
“We’ve been working very closely with the state government and there has been no indication it’s going to be axed,” Mr Himson said.
“We’ve been very busy behind the scenes working to secure daughter station sites.”
Mr Himson said locking down a site for a daughter station in Terang was taking a little longer than expected, but was hopeful construction work would start this year.
“The site has to have all the right zoning and good access for B-doubles,” he said.
“Once that site is locked in we can then do our detailed plans and designs of where the pipelines will run. But certainly from our perspective it’s full steam ahead.”
Member for Polwarth Terry Mulder said the communities of Terang and regional Victoria are getting nervous with the government’s habit of tearing up contracts.
“The state government needs to make a clear statement this contract is safe so the communities can start planing for their future,” Mr Mulder said.
“It’s also important councils know exactly what is happening so they can start approaching businesses and talking up the benifits natural gas will bring their towns.”