Paradip Port's expansion approved

Days after environment ministry committee rejected a port for Posco's steel plant in Orissa, the ministry on Tuesday provided an alternative for transportation by allowing expansion of the port at Paradip. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jan 5, 2011, 01:04:34 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Days after environment ministry committee rejected a port for Posco's steel plant in Orissa, the ministry on Tuesday provided an alternative for transportation by allowing expansion of the port at Paradip.

The ministry's expert appraisal committee (EAC) had upheld the environmental clearance to Posco's $12 billion project in Paradip but rejected the approval for an exclusive port on Mahanadi river.

Most EAC members felt that a new port for Posco will have adverse environment impact and there was no need for two ports within a distance of less than 100 km.

The EAC also said that initial environmental approval for the project in 2007 was correct while nullifying the objections raised by members investigating alleged environmental violations for acquiring land for Posco by the Orissa government.

Allowing per annum steel production of four million tonnes, the EAC has imposed additional green conditions on Posco, to take effect on more investment.

The final decision on Posco will, however, be taken by environment minister Jairam Ramesh as another ministry committee, the Forest Advisory Committee, recommended suspension of the project's forest clearance till provisions of the Forest Rights Act are implemented.

The minister is expected to decide before end of this January. Before taking final decision on Posco, Ramesh approved creation of additional capacity to handle 10 million tonnes each of iron ore and coal per annum at Paradip Port.

The Orissa government had sought approval for the project in December 2008.

To develop the project, the ministry has imposed 22 green conditions on the project.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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