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Environment Ministry Clears 6 Mining Proposals

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[Softening its stance on mining in heavily-forested areas, the Environment Ministry on Wednesday gave its nod for clearing six coal blocks, including five in 'no go' areas, for three major power plants in Orissa. "All the six coal-blocks are part of the IB Valley coalfield and only one (Meenakshi-A) is presently in the 'go' area, the other five being in 'no go' areas...All six blocks will now be considered by FAC (Forest Advisory Committee) as 'go' areas," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said in a statement. Giving green signal to clear coal-blocks linked to UMPP, NTPC and OPGC power plants, the Minister said the Power Ministry should give "special focus" on ash disposal and water availability. Three coal-blocks (Meenakshi-A, Meenakshi-B and Meenakshi Dipside) have been allocated to the 3960MW/4000MW Ultra Mega Power Plant (UMPP). Coal-blocks (Manoharpur and Manoharpur Dipside) have been allocated to the 1320 MW power plant of Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC). One coal-block (Dulanga) has been allocated to NTPC's 1600 MW power plant. Hailing the Environment Ministry's move, the Power Ministry said it will now pave way for raw material security for the project. "We are delighted... We will immediately go for further process of the Orissa UMPP," Power Secretary P Uma Shankar said. Ramesh, who last week granted a stage-I forest clearance to three blocks in dense forests in Chhattisgarh, said the Environment Ministry's intervention will help reduce biodiversity impacts on the forests where coal blocks will be opened up. After a developer gets stage-I forest clearance, it needs to demonstrate and provide requisite documents that the project will be restricted to the area for which the clearance has been given. Ramesh said both the Power and the Environment Ministry had a relook into the three projects to assess biodiversity impact and also took satellite imagery of the forest areas to be mined. He said the power units which will set up with the coal mined in these six blocks will use supercritical technology, "which will result in a saving of around five to eight per cent in terms of carbon dioxide emissions from each of the generating units as compared to a comparable sub-critical 500 MW unit". The additional condition that will be imposed over and above the usual conditions governing forest clearance is that the project proponents will bear the cost of regeneration of an area of open, degraded forest land equivalent to the amount of medium density forest land being diverted, Ramesh said. (PTI)