----------------------------------------------------------------------- Documented by Goa Desc Documentation Service & circulated by Goa Civic & Consumer Action Network (GOA CAN)<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Ph:2252660 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 units cleared are not power guzzlers: Dessai -------------------------------------------------------------------- Industries Minister, Ramrao Dessai has asserted that the four units cleared by the High Powered Co-ordination Committee last month are not 'power guzzlers' but sponge iron plants. He strongly denied the statement made by the president of Goa Pradesh Congress Committee, Luizinho Faleiro that the BJP government had okayed four 'power guzzlers' when all along the party had opposed such projects.
Mr Dessai told a press conference that contrary to claims made by Mr Faleiro on water requirement, the requirement of water for three units is only 25,000 litres per day and for the fourth one is 10 lakh litres per day. The water requirement of all the six units do not exceed even 12 lakh litres per day, he added. Mr Faleiro had said yesterday that each of the units would need 10 lakh litres of water per day.
With regard to power consumption, the minister said that no unit requiring more than one MW had been sanctioned. He stated that in the last three years, only six sponge iron plants had been sanctioned. Sponge iron plants do not fall in the category of power guzzlers, Mr Dessai asserted. He claimed that sponge iron plants generate more power than they consume and that's the reason, they can't be called power guzzlers.
He explained that at present, units which are manufacturing MS ingots are using steel scrap which create pollution and the shift to sponge iron as a substitute raw material will reduce pollution created by the existing steel units to almost negligible levels.
Denying another charge of Mr Faleiro, the minister said that all the necessary clearances from the Pollution Control Board had been obtained in all the six cases.
The financial investment of all the six units is to the tune of Rs 220.38 lakhs
while the employment potential will be around 1600. Mr Dessai said sponge
iron units would come under orange category though classification of industries
has not yet been done. It will be done in another one month, he added.
The Director of Industries, Trade & Commerce and Joint Secretary (Industries), Mr G P Chimulkar and under secretary (industries) Mr Prasad Lolyekar were also present. -------------------------------------- HERALD 9/8/03 page 1 --------------------------------------
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