After rejecting MNC Vedanta's plan to mine bauxite and holding up South Korean firm Posco's steel plant in Orissa, the Union environment ministry has now put a break on two other high-profile projects of Jindal Steel Plant and Lavasa Lake City (in picture), a unit of Hindustan Construction Ltd.
Maintaining that development cannot take place at the cost of environment, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has carried forward his 'green agenda' by serving a notice of revoking clearance granted to JSPL's 6 mtpa (million tonne per annum) steel plant in Orissa for allegedly violating forest norms.
A notice has also been issued to Lavasa for going ahead with alleged illegal construction after 2006 in a Rs 1.4 trillion ($31 billion) project to build a town in Pune.
While Hindustan Construction said it is yet to study the notice, JSPL denied any violation of environment norms.
The ministry has threatened to demolish the entire structure if the response to its notice issued on Thursday was not as per its satisfaction. It has also asked Lavasa Corporation Ltd to stop any further construction on its Lake City project till it replies to the show-cause notice.
"Pending a decision on the show-cause notice, the status quo on construction or development as on date should be maintained," the notice says.
According to the ministry, the Lake City project, spread across 25,000 acres, got a no-objection certificate from the state environment department in 2002 to develop the town in Mulshi and Velhe tehsils of Pune. The NOC was converted into final environmental clearance in 2004 which was limited to an area of 2,000 hectares.
"The environment clearance allowed the height of the Lake City project to be in the range of 640 metres to 900 metres. (However) The construction has been made above 1,000 metres as per the Pune district collector's report," it said.
The project proponent had spent Rs 115.20 crore (Rs 1.152 billion) out of total project cost of Rs 2,153 crore (Rs 21.53 billion), which amounts to about 5.53 per cent of the total cost, and for this clearance has to be sought from the environment ministry, it noted.
The ministry has asked the company to submit details of the project, clearances obtained, status of the project with photographs or satellite maps indicating the construction.
In the case of the JPSL's 6 mtpa steel plant at Angul in Orissa, the ministry has issued the notice under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, for revocation of green clearance citing violation of forest norms.
The ministry, in letters to the firms have given Lavasa until December 10 to file its response while for Jindal, the date has fixed as December 7.
Failure to satisfy the ministry could lead to the cancellation of both projects, sources in the ministry say as they ask the erring firms to take a note of the ministry's decision to scarp Vedanta's plans to mine bauxite and to expand a $9.5 billion alumina refinery project in Orissa.
Hindustan Construction has said it has not received the letter and would comment only after it had studied the notice.
However, in its various full-page advertisements issued in the last few days, it has claimed that no violation has taken place at the site.
Amongst other projects under the environment ministry's scanner is Posco's $12 billion integrated steel plant proposed in Jagatsinghpur, which is touted as the largest single foreign investment in the country.
The activities at the site have been already put on hold as the project's fate seems uncertain in view of an adverse report from a forest panel of the environment ministry.
