KARWAR: The proposed 450-MW coal-based Hankon thermal power project in Karwar is likely to be shelved, sources at Ind Bharat Power (Karwar) Ltd, the company executing the project, suggested.
The company is now looking to establish food processing units, health centres, a hotel or a solar energy plant at the project site in Hankon, sources said. It has already terminated the services of some local employees appointed for the thermal power project, it is learnt.
Construction and other equipment at the plant site — about 15 km from Karwar — will be shifted to a place near Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, where a similar plant is being set up, sources said.
Deputy Commissioner N S Chennappa Gowda confirmed the proposal to shift material from the project site. He said the Hyderabad-based Ind Bharat Power (Karwar) Ltd has sought permission to move equipment from the site.
The road leading to the project site, however, has been closed by the Forest Department as the company had laid the road without clearance.
There is no other route through which the equipment can be moved from the site.
The project, had become a rallying point for a people’s movement comprising villagers, fisherfolk and environmentalists, all of whom had strongly objected to the setting up of a power plant in an ecologicallysensitive zone. In June this year, about 50 people, including women, protesting at the project site were beaten up and arrested.
In September, a three-member committee constituted by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had found more than 20 flaws in the Environmental Impact Report (EIA) submitted by the company. The project had received a conditional clearance on the basis of the report.
The Hankon project case is pending with the National Environment Appellate Authority.
However, the Hankon Ushna Sthavara Virodhi Horata Samiti, the forum fighting against the establishment of the thermal project, is not convinced. KR Desai, legal adviser of the Samiti, told Express that “they had made many such statements in the past”.
“We will not rest till the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests officially scraps the project,” he said.