India: JSW Steel gets green nod for captive jetty for Odisha steel plant

-By SteelMint Bureau/Meera Mohanty

JSW Steel's Odisha subsidiary, JSW Utkal Steel, has received the Ministry of Environment and Forest's nod for a 52 mntpa capacity captive jetty it proposes to build along with its greenfield plant. The all-weather jetty is linked to the 13.2 mntpa steel and 10 mntpa cement cluster it is building in Jagatsinghpur district.

The steelmaker has a mechanised iron ore terminal at the nearby Paradip Port capable of handling 18million tonnes per annum.

This new captive jetty, linked to its proposed greenfield plant, will be built on 68.83 ha and sit where the Jatadhari River meets the Bay of Bengal. The Ministry, based on the recommendations of the Expert Appraisal Committee for Infrastructure, CRZ and other Miscellaneous projects, has granted clearance subject to certain conditions.

These include protecting and maintaining sand dunes on the southwest part of the project and initiating within two weeks of the start of dredging a monitoring program of the marine water quality, sediment quality and ecology, that must run through the life of the project. The MoEFCC wants six-monthly studies on shoreline changes and independent monitoring of sea turtles along the shoreline, and 5 km on either side of the project. It suggests hiring agencies GUIDE, SACON, ZSI for studies pre-construction, during and for at least ten years post construction. It also suggests sand dune management be outsourced similarly. "Adequate financial allocation be made for the studies including but not limited to open sea monitoring of sea turtle congregations and satellite tagging to understand movement of sea turtles. A comprehensive sea turtle conservation plan should be developed based on these studies and including collision avoidance mechanism, periodic closure of operation in the case of very large breeding congregations of sea turtles in the navigation routes etc."

JSW Utkal Steel will be raising the 2950.10 acres by 6.5 metres with sand dredged for its jetty. It must not however dredge during fish breeding season.