In a fresh order on Friday, the Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh high court directed Indore divisional commissioner to issue a public notice in different newspapers with sufficient space inviting objections with regard to the under construction BRTS project and also to hold a public hearing again.

In the order, Justice Shantanu Kemkar and Justice M C Garg have also set a timeline for issuing the notice and holding public hearing. The court has ordered to issue advertisement or public notice on or before March 4 after which people can submit their objections or suggestions. The divisional commissioner has been instructed to hold a public hearing on March 10 to hear the objections.

Environmentalists in Gujarat have claimed that the March 5 environmental public hearing (EPH) for the 6,000-MWe nuclear power plant in Saurashtra’s Bhavnagar district will be on the basis of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) by Engineers India Limited, which did not have the necessary accreditation.

Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, a leading environment action body in Gujarat, has demanded that the public hearing for the project at Mithi Virdi be stopped and the EIA submitted by Engineers India scrapped.

Maharashtra power distribution utility submits petition

Wind power may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. Increased wind energy costs proposed in a draft renewable energy tariff for 2013-14 by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has upset the State power distribution utility, which has submitted a petition challenging it at a recent public hearing where consumer groups and wind energy companies were not represented.

Paradip: Legally speaking, the state government cannot acquire lands for the Posco project, nor can construction work be started at the designated site as the project has no environment clearance in hand, official sources said.

"The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification, 2006, forbids activity of any nature at the site without environmental clearance," a senior official in the industry department said on Wednesday, quoting the existing law. He described the latest episode of the state government demolishing betel vines of farmers in the proposed plant site as 'highly illegal' and 'unconstitutional'.

The proposed 100-MW captive power plant of KPR Fertilisers at Bikkavolu in East Godavari district is being opposed by people of 12 villages in the vicinity, apprehending pollution and damage to cro

South Asia Network on Dams Rivers and People (SANDRP), an advocacy group, has claimed that the Expert Approval Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) on River Valley and H

Engineers India Ltd has completed a preliminary report for the environmental impact assessment for Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd’s (NPCIL) proposed 6x1,000-megawatt (Mw) project at Mithivirdi, Gujarat.

US nuclear reactor supplier Westinghouse Electric Co has signed a memorandum of understanding with NPCIL, agreeing to negotiate an early works agreement for setting up six AP1000 units at Mithivirdi. The AP1000 is a two-loop pressurised water reactor sold by Westinghouse. “This is a draft EIA report, which will be further scrutinised,” NPCIL Chairman and Managing Director K C Purohit told Business Standard.

In a bid to speed up infrastructure projects, the Prime Minister’s Office is said to have asked the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to issue fresh directions to facilitate ‘unconditional forest clearance’ waiving off the requirement for gram sabha nod for linear projects, small public utility projects and projects that do not ‘substantially’ affect the quality of the life of people.

While the PMO has been asking the MoEF for the last few months to examine ways to expedite the method of granting forest and environment clearance, in a meeting held on December 12, 2012, it was decided that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs will have to relax its guidelines. Both ministries are yet to issue any fresh circular.

“To recover past dues and to have adequate finances to be able to purchase power for the coming months”

Power consumers in the city will have to brace for spending more on their monthly bills as all three power distribution companies – the Anil Ambani-owned BRPL and BYPL and the Tatas-owned Tata Power -- want a further hike in power tariffs to not only recover their “past dues” but also “to have adequate finances to be able to purchase power for the coming months”.

NAGPUR: Even as public representatives of Vidarbha offer a token protest to large number of power plants coming up in Vidarbha, their counterparts in Mumbai forced Maharashtra Pollution Control Boa