Ramesh gives conditional nod to coal mining for Bedabahal project

NEW DELHI: The environment ministry has asked the power ministry to reduce coal mining area of a block attached to the 4,000 mw ultra mega power project at Bedabahal in Orissa by 10-15 %. Power ministry officials said the move would not affect the power project.

“We have given conditional clearance to the coal block attached to Orissa ultra mega power project. If the power ministry agrees to protect at least 200 of 260 hectares forest land, we can give them forest clearance. Also, mining approval to the block would be granted only if the power ministry is willing to forego two more power projects proposed to be lighted up with mines in the vicinity,” environment minister Jairam Ramesh said.

The two other projects are proposed to be set up by NTPC and Orissa Power Generation Corporation. Bedabahal project was allocated three coal blocks in IB valley coalfield in Orissa with a total of 886 million tonnes of reserves in 2006. The environment ministry has denied mining permission to Meenakshi coal block while the other two have been cleared.

Power minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Monday had said that Ramesh at a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had agreed to grant clearance to the Meenakshi block. He, however, had added that “no official communication in this regard has so far been received from the environment ministry.”

A power ministry official said: “The environment and forests ministry has asked us to cordon off about 10-15 % of coal block area with thick forests. As per initial geological survey, there are not much coal deposits in the area. We would be able to fuel the project even after reducing the area.”

Bidding process of the proposed power project at Bedabahal in Orissa will be resumed after eight months, only if the two ministries reach a consensus. The power ministry official said companies like NTPC, Tata Power, Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro and Essar Power are vying the project.

Power Finance Corporation, the nodal agency for bidding out ultra mega power project, had kicked off international tariff-based competitive bidding for Bedabahal in June last year. PFC had last month extended bid submission deadline for Bedabahal to March 31.

Bedabahal is the fifth proposed ultra mega power project in line as the government has four such mega projects at Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand. One more ultra mega power project at Surguja in Chhattisgarh is stuck for similar reasons.