Odisha: Expert team to submit report on Posco by October

Bhubaneswar: An expert team reviewing the environmental impact assessment of Posco's proposed $12 billion steel plant in Odisha will submit its report by October, the team said in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.

"We will submit the report by October," team leader K Roy Paul said after visiting the project site in Jagatsinghpur district and meeting senior state officials in Bhubaneswar.

The former civil aviation secretary said the panel led by him will submit its report to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).

Expert team to submit report on Posco by October

The four-member team is conducting the study afresh as the National Green Tribunal suspended the environment clearance granted earlier to the project, citing violation.

The four-member team deputed by the ministry is conducting the study afresh as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in March suspended the environment clearance granted earlier to the project, citing violation and asked for a fresh review.

Other members of the committee who have accompanied Paul include SR Wate, director of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI); R Ramesh, director of the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), and RD Singh, director of the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH).

The Odisha government had inked an agreement with the South Korean steel major in 2005 for the 12 million tonnes per annum steel project near the port town of Paradip in district Jagatsinghpur, about 120 km from Bhubaneswar.

The $12 billion steel project, touted as the largest foreign investment in India, is yet to make any significance progress due to local protests and regulatory hurdles.

It faced a major setback when the green tribunal suspended the environment clearance granted in January last year, saying that the permission was accorded on the basis of a study conducted for a four million tonnes per annum steel plant instead of 12 million tonnes.

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