Eco Clearance May Delay Ap Projects

The two thermal power plants of 500 mw each planned in Krishnapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, are likely to be embroiled in a controversy over environmental clearances.

GVK Industries is to execute one of the two projects and Besicorp-Brooklyne, a US firm, the other. The proposals have been cleared by the state government and the parties have initiated the preliminary work, like identifying the contractors.

A large portion of the 2,900 acres acquired by the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board (APSEB) for the two thermal power projects in Krishnapatnam (42 km from Nellore), falls within the Coastal Regulation Zone.

CRZ has been defined by the Centre as the coastal stretches of seas, bays, estuaries, creeks, rivers and backwaters which are influenced by tidal action (in the landward side) up to 500 metres from the high tide line....

The list of prohibited activities in CRZ, according to the Centres notification of February 1991, includes setting up of new industries and expansion of existing industries, except those directly related to water front or directly needing foreshore facilities.

The case of Krishnapatnam is understood to have been reviewed in the light of the recent Supreme Court judgment on aqua industries in Coastal Regulation Zone(CRZ) and it was felt that a large part of the acquired area lay in CRZ.

Two projects of London-based Duncan Macneil Holdings, one for a business centre at the Buddha Poornima site with a supporting residential complex in Madapur and the other a modern industrial park in Lankelapalem near Visakhapatnam, have also got bogged down over the past two years in the issue of ecological disturbance.

The Society for Preservation of Environment & Quality of Life has questioned the location of the business centre at the Buddha Poornima site as it violates the guidelines pertaining to the water body on the Hussainsagar Lake banks. There is also an ownership dispute over the site sold by the government to the London-based company. The cost of the two projects is over Rs 1,000 crore.

Duncan Macneil has been cool to a proposal aimed at attracting an investment of over Rs 10,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh.