An 11-member technical team from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) visited the Lavasa hill station project, 65 km from the city, on Wednesday for a detailed assessment of the Rs 3,000-crore project in Pune district. The team will be in Pune for three days to ready the report on the project. The construction of the project was held up for want of environmental clearance. The team is conducting the...

Unfazed by the criticism from some of his ministerial colleagues for delaying the green nod for projects in ecologically sensitive areas, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said the "single biggest threat" to the forests in the country is the "developmental threat". "They (forests) not only face the existential threat from encroachments...but they also face what is increasingly becoming perhaps the single biggest threat to Indian forests, which I call...

Its project hanging fire, South Korean steel giant Posco has objected to the Ministry of Environment and Forest’s (MoEF’s) recommendation that the company should submit a “detail time-bound” schedule for spending at least 5 per cent of its total project cost or about Rs 3,000 crore towards welfare activities in the project area in Orissa. Although Posco expressed willingness to earmark funds for CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities, it pointed out...

The world's third-largest steel maker Posco has said the company is running out of patience over its long delayed Rs 54,000-crore steel project in Orissa and may have to take a final call in the near future. The 12-million-tonne-per annum project has been stuck for the last five years and with an environment ministry panel recommending cancellation of its Forest Clearance proposal last year, the impasse seems endless. "The government has to...

Before the environment minister Jairam Ramesh takes a call on Posco by the end of January the ministry is expected to put up the last of the three reviews of the Rs 54,000 crore project for his perusal – on the Coastal Regulation Zone clearance for the steel plant and the planned port. The review of the CRZ clearance for the project may land the Korean giant in trouble with...