MoEF deadline for revised proposal over,feasibility survey on After directions from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF),the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has started the groundwork to weigh the available options to reduce the height of its under-construction 163-metre-high Kol dam,a 800 mega watt hydro power project. During a meeting in November,the ministry had told the NTPC to bring down the height of the dam by two,three or four metres,depending on the finding of a survey of the forest area to be submerged in all three scenarios. However,while the deadline of November 30 given by the MoEF to submit the revised plan has already past,the survey has just begun. The project had run into rough weather after the MoEF cancelled NTPCs proposal to divert 124 hectares of forest area in Majathal wildlife sanctuary it has 49,662 standing trees and 1,600 saplings and is home to endangered Chir pheasant to construct Kol dam. The proposal was cancelled at a standing committee meeting held on October 13 under the chairmanship of Union Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh. Though the NTPC had taken permission to divert 954.69 hectares of forest area in 1990,of which 44.855 hectares,part of the sanctuary under Harsang,were left out that came up for clearance in the October meeting. The ministry later advised the NTPC to bring down the number of trees in Majathal wildlife sanctuary,in Solan district,to be submerged. A senior official of the forest department confirmed that the work for re-enumeration of trees falling under the 124-hectare area under five forests Harsang,Jangal Majathal,Mandrach,Chilla and Kiari within the Majathal Sanctuary has been started by the NPTC with help of forest and revenue departments. Asking the NPTC to survey the forest area,the ministry had also advised that the trees that were likely to remain submerged in the reservoir for 10 days or less were not required to be felled. Due to difficult and steep terrain of the sanctuary,the enumeration work is expected to take longer,as has been the experience during the last three surveys done in 2005 and 2007. Kol dam is running two years behind schedule and is now almost 90 per cent complete. The project has already overshot its original estimated expenditure of nearly Rs 3,000 crore by 100 per cent.
