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Progress report (Vol I) of the Committee of Experts on blowout in Well Baghjan-5, Tinsukia district, Assam, 31/10/2020

  • 31/10/2020

Progress report (Volume 1) of the Committee of Experts constituted by the National Green Tribunal headed by Justice Brojendra Prasad Katakey, to look into the issues concerning Well Baghjan-5 in Tinsukia district, Assam.

OIL has informed the Committee that the study to be conducted by M/S ERM (India) Pvt. Ltd. and Assam Agriculture University, Jorhat would be completed only after the final killing of the Well. To carry out the Soil Compaction Study, the OIL has very recently engaged an agency, a report of which was also not ready.

In this context, the NGT has to decide whether a direction is necessary to all agencies including OIL to furnish their reports/findings to the Committee by a fixed date. It was imperative that these reports be fumished at the earliest to enable the Multidisciplinary Team to arrive at a reasonable assessment of the costs involved for restoration.

The various report and information furnished by OIL and other agencies to the Committee and also information / data already collected and to be collected by the Multi Disciplinary Committee had to be assessed after conducting further tests, wherever required.

"The collection of primary data being still on the Committee is unable to submit its final report before 03.11.2020 as directed by the Hon’ ble NGT, more so when the source of pollution is yet to be extinguished" the report said.

Note: The report of October 31, 2020 was uploaded to the NGT site on February 12, 2021.

Link to Volume II of the Progress Report