PLANS FOR a new underwater route for the controversial Corrib gas pipeline are due to be unveiled by Shell today, at an oral hearing of An Bord Planeala.

The new plans will take the pipeline three times the distance from the nearest house envisaged in the original plans, and bring a 4.9 section of it underwater, through a special conservation area.  But the route – the third proposed by Shell in the past eight years – is unlikely to allay local concerns about safety.

Local residents opposed the first two routes proposed to take the gas from the offshore gas field, back 9km inland to the refinery it has built at Ballanaboy.

Managing Director of Shell Exploration and Production Ireland, Terry Nolan, said this route will take the pipeline 234m away from the nearest house. But opponents of the plan, including Rossport resident Willie Corduff, who was jailed for his protest in 2005, said they will continue to appeal against it on health, safety and environmental grounds.

The hearing will take place in Belmullet, Co Mayo, today, and will continue for at least two weeks. No decision is expected before the end of the year.