Green panel to consider clearance to CIL's projects in Orissa

Coal India'a four projects in Orissa awaiting environmental clearances will be taken up for consideration by a green panel at a meeting next week.

The development come close on the heels of Environment minister Jairam Ramesh softening his stance and assuring that he will be "positive" towards infrastructure projects.

"Four projects of Coal India in Orissa will come up for consideration for clearance before Expert Appraisal Committee of Ministry of Environment and Forest next week," a source with the Coal Ministry said adding "during the meeting, committee is likely to recommend the cases for clearance".

All the four projects of Coal India--Vasundhara West, Samleswari, HBI and Delhpai-- in Orissa have been held up for the last six months to one year on the environmental issue.

The projects could not get clearance as the area under which they fall are categorised as 'critically polluted' under Comprehensive Environment Pollution Index (CEPI).

CEPI captures the various health dimensions of the environment, and acts as an early warning tool to facilitate early interventions.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had last month asked MoEF to revisit projects under CEPI.

Coal India Limited (CIL) has already said that its production from nine coalfields are likely to be impacted due to restrictions under the CEPI.

CIL, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic production, expects to reach a production figure of around 440 million tonnes by the fiscal-end against a target of about 460 MT.

In 2009, the MoEF had introduced CEPI to categorise the environmental quality at given locations and conducted a nation-wide assessment of industrial clusters.

In January last year, the MoEF had imposed a temporary moratorium on development projects in 43 clusters as they had a CEPI score of more than 70.

In October, 2010, the MoEF further extended the moratorium till 31 March 2011.

Yesterday, Ramesh had said that moratorium in 25 areas will soon be lifted, adding that restrictions in 13 areas have already been lifted.