Vedanta Aluminum Ltd (VAL), an associate company of the globally diversified Vedanta Resources Plc, has already made a fresh proposal to obtain environmental clearance for the expansion of its aluminum refinery at Lanjigarh in Orissa. It has also withdrawn its case against the MoEF at the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The ministry under Ramesh had cancelled the environmental clearance to Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC). OMC is in agreement with Vedanta Group company Sterlite for mining bauxite at Niyamgiri hills.
OMC's bauxite mining project falls within the forest land of Kalahandi and Rayagada area of the state, and is part of the Vedanta Group's 6 million tonne per annum aluminium refinery in Lanjigarh.
Vedanta had filed a review petition at the newly set up NGT. In August 2007, VAL had applied for expansion of its refinery capacity from 1 to 6 mtpa and captive power plant from 75 to 300 Mw. Since last year, the company was at loggerheads with the MoEF on issues of expansion of its aluminium refinery and bauxite mining at Niyamgiri.
When contacted, company officials confirmed that Vedanta had withdrawn its petition last week and had also filed a fresh application for expansion of the aluminium refinery. Read the full report here.
Source: Piyali Mandal, Business Standard, New Delhi.
