Posco's steel plant: Opponents to move NGT against revalidation by ministry

NEW DELHI: It may not be a smooth ride yet for South Korea steel major Posco's integrated steel plant project in Odisha. The project's forest clearance, currently pending before the National Green Tribunal, may not be the last hurdle for the South Korean company. Opponents of the project are questioning the legality of the ministry's decision to revalidate the environmental clearance as well.

While the revalidation of the project's environmental clearance, which lapsed in July 2012, has eased matters, the Korean steel company can't take up construction till the green courts address the issue of the validity of the forest clearance granted to the project.

Land acquisition for the project had to be suspended with the National Green Tribunal putting a stay on the felling of trees in the project area in May.




Environmentalist Prafulla Samantara petitioned the green court last year saying that felling of trees in the project area was illegal in the absence of a formal letter of forest clearance from the state government. The National Green Tribunal will be adjudicating on this issue on Monday.

In the meantime, sources suggest that last week's revalidation of the environmental clearance could come under question from activists and environmentalists opposing the Posco project. Experts say that there are two contentious issues on which the revalidation could be challenged in the green court. The first is the delinking clearance for the steel plant and the port. This is not in keeping with the green tribunal's order of March 30, 2012 which called for a single environmental clearance for all major and minor components of the project. Government officials stress the order suggests to the ministry that it is "desirable" to "establish clear guidelines" for developers to apply for a single environmental clearance for all components essential to the project.

The second issue is that last week's revalidation is for an integrated steel plant with an initial annual production capacity of 4 million tonnes, which has a built in provision for another 4 million tonnes per annum.

"Effectively, we are talking about a steel plant with an annual production capacity of 8 million tonnes. The ministry can't revalidate the July 2007 environmental clearance, which was for a 4 million tonne plant to be eventually scaled up to 12 million tonnes. The environment impact assessment was done for only 4 million tonnes capacity. Revalidating the project without a fresh impact assessment and public hearing would be a violation," a person close to the development explained.

The March 30, 2012 order had stressed that the environment impact assessment for the project should be for the intended capacity of the plant. The ministry's letter revalidating the integrated steel plant, accessed by ET, states that "Posco's intermediate plan (2012) is to set up a 4 MTPA integrated steel plant (Phase I) with inbuilt provision of another 4 MTPA (phase II) on 2,700 acres. Accordingly a revised lay out plan was submitted. However, the original plan of setting up of 12 MTPA steel plant has remained unchanged and intact."