Reliance Infrastructure has given an assurance to the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) that low hanging power lines that had resulted in the electrocution of 99 elephants in Orissa will be improved upon. A meeting to this effect was held last week in New Delhi and was attended by officials from the discom, MoEF, Orissa state government, the Wildlife Society of Orissa and the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

ANGUL: Cracking the whip, the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) has imposed a fine of Rs 54,000 on Bhusan Steel Limited in Dhenkanal district for dumping its slurry in an open ground near a village. Official sources said during an earlier inspection at the plant, it was found that ash generated from two power plants was being dumped near a village illegally.

Bhusan has two power plants of 110 MW and 300 MW capacity.

BHUBANESWAR: A joint official team from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) will visit the State next week scouting for sites for establishment of two more ultra mega power projects (UMPPs). The Centre has given in principle approval for three ultra mega power projects for the State. While bidding for the first UMPP at Bedabahal in Sundargarh district is underway, the Central team is likely to visit a few sites for the other two projects in Bhadrak and Balangir districts.

Orissa is set to get power allocation of up to 50 per cent from the second and third Ultra Mega Power Plants (UMPPs) proposed in the state, Union minister for power Sushilkumar Shinde said here.

The minister, however, ruled out possibility of allocation of 50 per cent power for the state from the first UMPP to be established at Bhedabahal in Sundergarh district, the bidding process for which has already begun. The state is poised to get 1300 MW from this UMPP and had demanded that its share be raised to 2000 MW.

BHUBANESWAR: Above a third of Odisha’s households have to trudge half a km and more every day to get their quota of drinking water. What is worse, their number has been on the rise, the latest House-listing and Housing Census 2011 has found. Indicating an abysmal state of affairs, the Census, which was released on Saturday, revealed that a whopping 35.4 per cent of households had to trek more than 500 metres from their houses to get drinking water during the decade ending 2011.

Bhubaneswar: State-run NTPC on Saturday said that it would invest over Rs 24,000 crore to set up two power projects in Orissa in the 12th five-year plan with a view to augmenting generating capacity by about 4,500 MW in the state. Two super thermal power projects will be set up at Darlipali in Sundargarh district and Gajmara in Dhenkanal district at an approximate cost of Rs 24,000 crore, NTPC Regional Executive Director (East-II), Jayadeb Nanda told reporters here.

Bhubaneswar: As many as 36 ancillary industries and 19 downstream units were expected to come up with the commissioning of Posco's 12 mtpa steel plant near Paradip, steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty informed the State Assembly here on Tuesday. Replying to a question, the minister said that the ancillary units included refractory materials, lancing pipes, forged rounds, foundry, steel strapplings, ferro alloys, hard coke, welding electrodes, conveyor belt, belt fasteners, fly ash bricks, calcinated petroleum coke and cotton waste.

BHUBANESWAR: Worried over the recurring incidence of electrocution, the State Government has decided to replace single and double poles with elephant-friendly electricity structures in districts where the jumbos are most vulnerable. To avoid the electrocution, narrow based lattice structures (NBLS) will be established in Dhenkanal, Angul, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj by replacing the single and double poles in all 11 KV and 33 KV lines in future.

DHENKANAL: The bird flu panic has made its way to the mid-day meal scheme too. Hundreds of students of various primary schools in Dhenkanal district have refused to take eggs in their noon meal. As many as 1,700 schools with 1.10 lakh children come under the Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan in eight blocks of the district. Since a week, teachers have stopped giving eggs under the MDM following the students’ and their parents’ fear of contracting the flu. The block resource coordinators (BRCs) too have asked the schools to stop distribution of eggs.

Elephants are frequently being electrocuted in Orissa and the government has sought to fix live wires with Central funds not meant for such an exercise, a request questioned by Central officials as well as conservationists.