Ramesh clears five coal blocks in 'no go' areas

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday cleared six coal blocks, including five in ‘no go’ areas, in Orissa. This was the second time in a week that the environment ministry has shown a softening in stance about coal blocks caught in green hurdles.

Of the six blocks, three (Meenakshi-A, B and Dipside) were allotted to the 3,960 Mw/4000 Mw ultra mega power plant (UMPP) in Orissa. Two blocks, Manoharpur and Manoharpur Dipside, were awarded to Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) for its proposed 1,320-Mw power plant in the Ib Valley, while one (Dulanga) was allotted to NTPC for its proposed 1600-Mw Darlipalli power plant.

Last Thursday, the ministry had given its approval to open up Tara, Parsa East and Kante Basan coal blocks in the Hasdeo-Arand forest region of Chhattisgarh.

“Only one (Meenakshi-A) is presently in the ‘go’ area, the other five being in ‘no go’ areas...All six blocks will now be considered by the Forest Advisory Committee as ‘go’ areas,” Ramesh said in a statement.

A senior NTPC official said, “With this clearance, the company will go ahead with block development activities. The coal ministry has already approved its mining plan for a capacity of seven million tonne per annum.”

OPGC Managing Director Venkatachalam Kuppusami said, “We are thankful to the minister for considering the merit of our case while changing the category to ‘go’ from the earlier ‘no go’ for the coal blocks allotted to us.”

The company had requested the environment ministry to lift the ‘no go’ status from the two coal blocks. While state energy minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak had written to Ramesh on the matter, state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had sought the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Nayak had again sent a letter to Ramesh on Saturday.

Under the initial ‘no go’ exercise, the environment ministry had barred mining in 203 coal blocks, with a production potential of over 660 million tonnes.

Ramesh said it was decided to take a relook at the three projects together to get a broader picture of the biodiversity impact.

Referring to a satellite imagery on the forest area to be diverted as coal blocks, Ramesh said 40 per cent of the forest area allotted to UMPP could be saved.

He said the number of trees to be felled in the case of NTPC has fallen from around 67,500 to 37,500 (a 44 per cent reduction) and in case of OPGC, about 75,000 trees were saved.

He said all the power units being put up with the coal mined in these six blocks will use supercritical technology. “This will result in a saving of around five to eight per cent in terms of carbon dioxide emissions from each of the generating units as compared to a comparable sub-critical 500 Mw unit,” Ramesh said.