Indian Oil Petronas Private Limited, a joint venture between Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Petronas Malaysia, is setting up an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) import-export terminal at the Ennore Port. The new facility will have a tankage capacity of 30,600 tonnes and will attract an investment of around Rs 497.83 crore.

Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas R P N Singh informed the Lok Sabha that the IOC was proposing to set up an LNG (liquefied natural gas) import terminal at Ennore Port with storage and regasification facilities of 5 million metric tonne per annum capacity at an estimated cost of Rs 4,320 crore.

In a move that aims at providing more land for construction and increased sops to builders in the ecologically sensitive Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) areas, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has asked the state government to allow the new relaxed building norms to be applicable in such areas. As per existing rules, the Floor Space Index (FSI) that determines the extent of construction that can be carried out on a plot is restricted in CRZ areas.

MUMBAI: BMC chief S J Kunte on Wednesday said the Adarsh building had come up without any Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance. Kunte said before the commission of Justice (retired) J A Patil and member P Subrahmanyam that the construction rights in the form of floor space index that was granted to the building exceeded the norms under CRZ rules.

The LPG import terminal project of IndianOil Petronas Pvt Ltd (IPPL) near Chennai that can help in speeding up cooking gas supplies to millions of households in the South, especially Tamil Nadu, is facing delay in its commissioning for want of a clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment.

The Ennore terminal had been completed in all respects and was got ready for commissioning by March itself, say sources in Indian Oil Corporation.The wait, according to IPPL officials, is for the CRZ (coastal regulation zone) clearance from the Ministry for the pipelines connecting the jetty at the Ennore port and the terminal. A length of 675 m is falling in the CRZ zone, they add.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday directed National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to conduct a site inspection of mangroves in the protected Sewri Bay area. A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Nitin Jamdar was suo motu hearing a PIL, taking cognizance of a complaint on destruction of mangroves due to the storage of coking coal used in furnaces by the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT). The Sewri Bay area consists of mudflats, wetlands and mangroves.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has written a letter to the Centre seeking immediate environment clearance for the Rs8,000-crore coastal road project in Mumbai. In his letter to Union environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan, the CM has requested the Centre to relax the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms to enable the state reclaim the land along the seashore for road widening between Nariman Point and Kandivli.
“Chavan has sought an appointment with Natarajan next week where he will discuss the project, which is high on his agenda,” sources in the state government said.

MUMBAI: The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests on Wednesday put the state government in the dock before the Adarsh commission. MoEF Director A Senthil Vel told the commission that the "Maharashtra experience" was one of the reasons why the Centre decided to take away the powers of the state governments to grant Coastal Regulation Zone clearance in 2003. He told the commission that the MoEF had not granted CRZ clearance for Adarsh.

MUMBAI: A senior officer of the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), Dr A Senthil Vel, will on Wednesday take the witness stand before the judicial commission inquiring into the Adarsh scam. Senthil Vel's evidence would be crucial as it was his letter that was misinterpreted as environmental clearance for the Adarsh building--one of the major violations alleged against the housing society.

A government inspection team says OPG Power, already facing environmental objections to its 300 Mw thermal power plant in Gujarat, is carrying on construction work at the project site without requisite approvals.

A joint site (Mundra in Kutch district) inspection last week by the state environment impact assessment authority, the regional office of the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), the state expert appraisal committee and the Gujarat pollution control board detailed the breaches. The required approvals include those under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance.