VAL to approach MoEF for reconsideration of order

Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) has decided to approach the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) for reconsideration of its decision to disallow the capacity expansion of its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Orissa from 1 million tonne to six million tonne and that of captive power plant from 75 Mw to 300 Mw.

“We will go back to MoEF for reconsideration of their decision to disallow the expansion of the Lanjigarh plant”, Mukesh Kumar, president and chief operating officer of VAL told Business Standard.

He said, MoEF has disallowed the expansion mainly on the ground that public hearing for the project was held after the start of work on it. “We had told MoEF that main work on the expansion had started after the public hearing and we will reiterate that in our reconsideration request”, Kumar said.

Similarly, VAL had maintained that it was under the impression that fresh environment clearance was not necessary for the expansion as it was being done within the existing premises and there was no change in the process or product mix. The company had furnished the legal opinion of KK Venugopal, an eminent lawyer, to support its stand. Though MoEF has termed the submission of legal opinion as a after thought to the violation of norms, the company has decided to stick to this stand.

“Already in case of Jindal Power’s plant in Chhatishgarh, MoEF has condoned start of expansion work without prior clearance. So, we expect similar relief from the ministry if there are any lapses”, Kumar argued.

He said, the company’s stand in many other issues like forest land, pollution, water use have been vindicated by MoEF as it allowed VAL to run the I million tonne refinery at Lanjigarh. “With access to Niyamgiri mines denied by MoEF earlier, we will continue to run this refinery sourcing bauxite from different sources”, he said.

On the ministry’s instruction not to source bauxite from any mine which did not have environment clearance, he said, “we have already furnished details on 23 mines in different states from where we are bringing our bauxite and all of them are legal sources”.

Kumar said, 60 per cent of the 30 lakh tonne bauxite required for Lanjigarh refinery is being met from the company’s own mines at Korba in Chhatishgarh. Besides, the company has signed agreement with Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation for supply of five lakh tonnes of bauxite over next nine months.