Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) on Tuesday said it is confident of reviving the controversial thermal power plant in Sompeta, Srikakulam, despite the National Environmental Appellate Authority (NEAA) quashing the clearance granted to the project.
The company is awaiting a site report by the regional chief Cconservator of Forests, Bangalore, who is expected to conduct an inspection shortly.
Last Thursday, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had ordered such an inspection.
Y D Murthy, executive vice-president (finance) of NCC told FE that the company is pinning hopes on this project and will try to revive it the current site.
?The committee for immediate inspection (led by RCCF) is expected at Sompeta this week, which will give the preliminary report of the entire eco-system around the site. This would include the impact on ecology, assessment of wetland, nature of pollution if any, and other perceived ecological issues,? Murthy said.
He could not rule out completely, options of an alternative site.
NCC has been pinning hopes on the project since the entire power generated in the plant would be sold on the merchant basis in the open market. The company is looking at legal options as well. ?`Since we have three months to re-appeal, we are still working out on the modalities,” he added.
Murthy affirmed that senior officials did visit the site regularly and also had undertaken education programmes for the villagers. The company had taken the locals around the site to make them understand the technology in the plant and tried to convince that it would not be polluting the surrounding ecosystem.
On the protests and hunger strike by the villagers despite enough PR exercise, Murthy said it was a matter of `sheer bad luck’. Murthy claimed that some of the locals had expressed happiness over the project as the backward district would get a power project.
In fact, the impasse over the 2640-mw coal based power plant comes amid opposition to another thermal plant in the same district for which an environment clearance was already given. In the case of a 2640 mwpower plant proposed by East Coast Energy Pvt Ltd in Bhavanapadu in Srikakulam, local groups have challenged the clearance given to it in April 2009.
Several power plants are coming up along the coastal belt of Andhra Pradesh because of accessibility to imported coal and also domestic coal fields through rail networks.
?There has never been good penetration of industry in this district because of the remote location,? said N Srikant, District Collector. But things have changed over the past four years since National Highway-5 connecting Chennai and Kolkata was redone. ?Access has improved greatly now,? he said.
The NEAA, quashed the clearance for the Rs 12,000 crore plant by NCCL, last week on the grounds that it was given on incorrect information about proposed site, had also ruled that the environment ministry undertake a survey of all wetlands
in Srikakulam.
