COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Sterlite calls NEERI report biased, says Tuticorin plant is eco-friendly

Sterlite Industries (India) Limited today submitted in Madras high court that the report of the Nagpur-based National Environment Engineering Research Institute, based on which a division bench had ordered closure of its copper smelting plant at Tuticorin, was "biased".

In the counter filed by the company, it said the plant's closure would result in operational loss of Rs 25 million a day and affected the livelihood of about 3,000 people who were directly or indirectly employed.

On NEERI's submission that the plant was located within 25 km of an ecologically fragile area, the counter contended that the Union ministry of environment and forest had issued only a guideline and had not made this mandatory. The plant's location within the 25 km radius would not in any manner pollute the environment.

The plant had abandoned the original plan of discharging the treated effluents into the sea and operated on zero discharge basis, the counter said.

UNI

Business news