Great Eastern Energy Corporation Ltd (GEECL) is confident that the report of the committee, whose constitution Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced on Wednesday, would be favourable for it.
“If the government in its wisdom wants to review [impact of the project], let it do so,” GEECL president and chief operating officer Prashant Modi said. It is unlikely that the committee report would be against the project as “there is nothing negative on the ground,” he told The Hindu over phone from New Delhi.
In the absence of Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board clearance, GEECL had not begun any work. As regards the plan to drill 50 core holes and 30 pilot production wells that he mentioned at a press briefing here in October last year, he said there was no change. Once TNPCB gave its nod, the company would pursue the plan on which the investment estimated was Rs.100 crore. The total investment on the project is Rs.3,500 crore.
Mr. Modi claimed all the points raised against the Coal Bed Methane project now were covered by Union Ministry of Environment and Forests before according clearance in September 12, 2012. The company, he added, was operating 150 wells to produce natural gas in the Raniganj block in West Bengal.
