Kochi: The state government has submitted before Kerala High Court that it would go ahead with the Athirappally hydro-electric project after getting environmental clearances from the government of India.
Mr C.C. Thobias, assistant executive engineer, Ernakulam, submitted that a high-level meeting on March 13 had decided to implement the project.
The court observed that the clearance granted on July 18, 2007 for five years had already expired and so the state can’t go ahead with the project. It also closed a batch of petitions pending before the court since 2007.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice A.M. Shaffique observed that the environment clearance obtained for the project had expired and, therefore, the authorities were not in a position to implement the project.
The KSEB submitted that the state was facing a serious power crisis, which would aggravate if no adequate generation was ensured.
Kerala has no known reserve of gas, petroleum or coal for developing thermal energy at affordable rate.
All the thermal power stations in the state with an installed capacity of about 771 MW are naphtha or Low Sulphur Heavy Stock (LSHS)- based plants.
The thermal power stations can only be used sparingly due to the prohibitive cost of naphtha and LSHS. The density of population is very high.
Further, the transportation of fuel is costlier and interstate transmission corridor is overloaded, it said.
