Lavasa, JSP hit green hurdle
New Delhi, Nov. 26: India’s environment ministry is asking two high-profile projects about possible violations of regulations, continuing an assertiveness that has already held up or halted several billion-dollar projects, some from foreign firms.
Lavasa, a unit of Hindustan Construction Co, has been asked to provide reasons why the government should not raze all construction after 2006 in a $31 billion project to build a town outside Pune.
The lake city project, spread across 25,000 acres, is situated around 190 km from Mumbai and some 65 km from Pune.
Jindal Steel and Power has been asked to defend the green clearance given to it for a 6 million tonne per year plant in the eastern state of Orissa.
The ministry, in letters to the firms, gave Lavasa until December 10 to file its response. Jindal must answer by December 7, the ministry’s letters to the firms said.
Failure to satisfy the ministry could lead to the cancellation of both projects.
The ministry has already scrapped plans by miner Vedanta to mine bauxite and to expand a $9.5 billion alumina refinery project in Orissa. HCC said it had not received the letter and would comment only after it had studied the notice. Jindal did not immediately respond to calls from Reuters.
India’s environment ministry, under the feisty Mr Jairam Ramesh, is increasingly becoming more proa-ctive in checking whether projects across India are following green regulations.
Amongst other projects under its scanner is a $12 billion steel plant proposed in Orissa by South Korean steelmaker Posco, the lar-gest single foreign investment into India.
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