Work on the expansion of the 2×600 MW Singareni Thermal Power Plant owned by Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) at Pegadapalli in Mancherial district is likely to be delayed further with an experts committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) deferring the proposal for environmental clearance seeking an action plan on compliances.
The committee of experts that met in New Delhi on June 26 has deferred the SCCL’s proposal and asked for an action plan on environmental compliances and to other observations made by a sub-committee that visited the plant site and its impact areas on May 30 and 31. The SCCL is planning to expand its power plant by adding one more unit with 800 MW capacity.
According to officials, a five-member sub-committee was formed in January this year following the recommendation of the experts committee when it first took up the proposal for appraisal in November 2018 for visiting the plant site and its impact areas. After its field visit on May 30 and 31, the sub-committee has made several observation from the environmental point of view and recommended several remedial measures to be taken by the project proponent.
Environmental cell
After visiting the power plant, Pegadapalli village, Srirampur opencast mine and its coal handling plant, Srirampur area coal handling plant and rail transportation, the sub-committee asked for submission of revised coal linkage documents, action plan for not using groundwater from infiltration galleries of Godavari river, plant layout showing demarcation of greenbelt along with time lines for its development in Miyawaki system with financial tie-up, restriction of as pond area to only 30 hectares from the proposed 59.44 ha and action plan for implementing revised emission standards.
Further, the sub-committee wants the project management to adopt Pegadapalli and develop it as a model village with provision of permanent jobs for villagers and also construction of rainwater harvesting structures. It also recommended setting up dedicated environmental cell with qualified environmental engineers and experts from soil biology and chemistry.
The experts committee sought the compliance reports on the observations made by the sub-committee for considering the proposal for appraisal, the process for recommending it for environmental clearance.
