Sesa Goa, owned by miner Vedanta Resources, must shut its 280,000 tonnes per year metallurgical coke unit in Goa after complaints about pollution, a State Pollution Board official said. Shares of Sesa Goa extended losses by 3.73% at R180.45 per share on the news.
?We have issued directions for closure of the coke unit of Sesa Goa,? Levinsons Martins, member secretary of the Goa State Control Pollution Board (GSPCB), said. The plant would remain shut at least until then.
Sesa Goa said it had not received any order yet. ?We are yet to receive any notice, so commissioning is still on,? said PK Mukherjee, managing director.
The locals held a day-long-bandh on Monday protesting against the increasing pollution allegedly due to coke oven plant at Navelim in Bicholim taluka, 40 kms away from Panaji.
The villagers complained about the black soot being emanated from the plant, which has entered their water sources and houses.
Martin last evening issued orders to Sesa Goa?s Metcocke division to stop all the activities within 48 hours.
The notice mentions that the second battery of the coke oven plant is under pre-heating and officials of M/s Sesa Goa present during the inspection have admitted that there was soot generation due to misfiring of high capacity diesel burners.
The same soot, the notice reads, was dispersed through the stack and was deposited in the nearby residential areas. The GSPCB has also noticed that Sesa Goa has not carried out ambient air quality monitoring since June 2012.
?The continuous ambient air monitoring station has not yet been commissioned,? the notice reads.
The pollution control board has asked the company to take all necessary precaution by carrying out root cause analysis for misfiring of burners during pre-heating of coke oven and submit preventive measures they propose to undertake to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future.
The directorate of factories and boilers, the state-run department, has been directed to conduct the comprehensive investigation of the incident and submit a report within seven days.
Metallurgical coke is an ingredient for making steel. About 35% of the metallurgical coke produced by Sesa Goa is sold to local steel makers, while the rest goes into its own blast furnances for production of pig iron.