MUMBAI: In a bid to push the plan for setting up a 29-km freeway along Mumbai's western coast, the state government on Monday asked the Centre to consider modifying the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms and permitting reclamation for construction of a road. The demand was made during a meeting with T Chatterjee, secretary, ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), at Mantralaya, which was attended by state chief secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad and other senior state officials.

Taking cue from Tamil Nadu villagers protesting against the 2,000-Mw Kudankulam nuclear power project, their counterparts in Maharashtra have decided to step up their agitation against the proposed plant at Madban along the Konkan Coast. Project-affected persons from 10 villages in the vicinity of the project site have announced a ‘jail bharo’ agitation on January 24 and 25 to press for the cancellation of 9,900-Mw nuclear project in Ratnagiri district.

A US-based geologist has dismissed Maharashtra government's claim over the safety of the proposed nuclear plant site at Jaitapur, stating that the site is vulnerable to quakes. "Since Jaitapur lies in the same compressional stress regime that has been responsible for generating two major earthquakes at Latur and Koyna in the past five decades it can be argued that a similarly intense quake could possibly occur directly beneath the power plant," Prof Dr Roger Bilham of the University of Colarado said here.

French, Russian regulators say no need to change designs of projects at Jaitapur and Kundankulam.

India’s nuclear capacity addition programme, which has seen opposition from local villagers and experts countrywide, has got a boost following safety assurances from French and Russian nuclear safety regulators associated with pertinent projects in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

French major Areva also claims safety of EPRs, but critics not convinced.

The evolutionary pressurised reactors (EPRs) that Areva is interested in supplying to the Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) as part of the proposed Jaitapur nuclear power in Maharashtra will offer 15 per cent savings on uranium per mega-watt produced as compared to other reactors, according to the French nuclear major.

The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) has designated the entire hill range as an Ecologically Sensitive Area.

The panel, in its report, has classified the 142 taluks in the Western Ghats boundary into Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZ) 1, 2 and 3. It recommended that “no new dams based on large-scale storage be permitted in Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1. Since both the Athirappilly of Kerala and Gundia of Karnataka hydel project sites fall in Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1, these projects should not be accorded environmental clearance,” it said.

No reliable historical seismic record in the region before 1800 A.D.

While the government is determined to build a nuclear power plant at Jaitapur in Ratnagiri district, a new paper in journal Current Science has said that the apparent seismic silence of Jaitapur does not mean that an earthquake cannot occur there.

Says Indonesian coal supply hitch not ‘force majeure’
Regulatory authorities have rejected JSW Energy’s plea to revise power tariffs because of difficulty in procuring fuel from Indonesia, a decision that analysts said was a setback for other companies seeking higher electricity rates on similar grounds.

MUMBAI: In a victory for anti-Jaitapur nuclear plant activists who claimed their fundamental rights to speech and movement were being trampled upon, the Bombay high court directed the state government not to restrain them from entering Ratnagiri district.

The Democratic Front government is not happy with the Centre’s decision to extend the moratorium on important projects in coastal Konkan, arguing that it would stall the pace of development in the region.
The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has informed the state government about its decision to extend the freeze on 50 projects in Ratnagiri and Sindhurdurg districts until December 31 this year.