Tuesday, 15 Feb 2011
The Telegraph reported that a proposal for a steel plant in Angul, Orissa, has received a fresh nod from the Union environment ministry after being pulled up three months ago for serious non compliance of environmental conditions.
The ministry has approved Jindal Steel and Power Limited’s proposal for 6 million tonnes per year steel plant after listening to the company’s explanation, revising guidelines on forest rules and imposing additional conditions on the project.
The ministry appears to have accepted this explanation, but imposed several conditions, including the installation of coal gasification technology to reduce emissions, the use of fly ash generated by plant activities for cement manufacture, and earmarking of two per cent of net profits for activities relating to corporate social responsibility. The ministry has also asked the company to adopt energy and water conservation measures in the steel plant and its captive power plant as well as adopt rain harvesting techniques to recharge the groundwater in the region.
The ministry had sent a notice to the company in November pointing out serious non compliance of the conditions imposed on the project when the ministry first approved it in 2007. The ministry had specified in 2007 that no construction activity should begin on the project site unless approval for the 168 hectares of forestland within the project area had been given. However, forest officials in Angul had observed in 2009 that construction work on storage godowns, roads, a foundation for industrial activities such as a power plant, had been initiated on non forest government land.
But the ministry revised its rules on January 6 this year, specifying that if a project covers both forest and non forest land, it was advisable that work should not be started on the non forest area until the Centre approved the project for the forested area. (sourced:Telegraphindia)
Tags:JSPL Angul, steel project, JSPL, steel plant, Angul, Orissa, environmental clearance, Jindal Steel and Power, Indian government,
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