VISAKHAPATNAM: Coromandel International Limited belonging to Murugappa Group on Thursday allayed fears over pollution even as the stakeholders sought stringent measures to put emissions at the bare minimum and preference to locals in jobs in the proposed Rs.225-crore expansion.
At the public hearing held here at Sriharipuram, several people living in the vicinity did not oppose the expansion but asked the AP Pollution Control Board to ensure compliance of emission parameters stipulated by it. They also stated that locals were being denied the opportunity both in employment and awarding petty contracts.
Speaking at the meeting, Senior Vice President of CIL A. Ramachandra Rao said the expansion of phosphoric acid plant from 700 to 1,000 ton per day with state-of-the art technologies would result in a foreign exchange savings of Rs.70 crore.
He said the expansion project had the potential to provide direct and indirect jobs to 275. The management clarified that the Rs. 295-billion Murugappa Group was committed to serving the nation by implementing the best practices in the world. The fertilizer plant at Visakhapatnam is the second largest phosphatic unit in the country catering to the 70 per cent farming needs of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and the balance 30 per cent to the remaining parts of the country.
The company said it would spend Rs. 26 crore from the expansion project on environmental management programmes.
The stakeholders by and large referred to the pollution being created by Coromandel and HPCL in the area and sought remedial measures. District Collector Pravin Kumar, who chaired the public hearing, said he would submit a report to the Ministry of Environment and Forests based on the suggestions made by the people.
Srinivasa Nagar (West) Resident Welfare Association president Kothapalli Ramakrishnam Raju said despite repeated representations no steps were being taken to minimise pollution in the neighbourhood forcing people to suffer several respiratory, skin and other health problems.
Vizag West MLA P.G.V.R. Naidu said the Coromandel management should ensure jobs local and fund storm water drainage in the area. He also wanted a super-speciality hospital set up in the area for the benefit of residents under CSR.
CPI State assistant secretary Ch. Satyanarayana Murthy said the company management was slapped fine by AP Pollution Control Board in 2010 and wondered how now permission was proposed to expand its capacity. He said mystery shrouded over lifting of moratorium imposed by the Central Pollution Control Board on Greenfield and Brownfield industrial projects in the city after declaring the city as a ‘critically polluted area.’
