Greens term EIA report incomplete

Terming government's draft environment impact assessment (EIA) report on a proposed coal-based power plant in Rampal incomplete, environmentalists and rights activists yesterday opposed it.
They said if the 1,320 megawatt power plant was constructed on the basis of the current analysis, it would wreak havoc on the Sundarbans -- just 14 km from the project site in Bagerhat district.
They came up with the observation during a people's consultation meeting, organised by Power Development Board, at Bidyut Bhaban in the capital.
They questioned how India's Thermal Power Company (NTPC) got clearance for the project when the same Indian company could not obtain permission to build coal-based power plants on the Indian side of the world's largest mangrove forest.
Prof Shamsul Alam, energy adviser to the Consumers Association of Bangladesh -- a rights group, said: "No concession will be allowed in saving the Sundarbans."
Alam also said the government had acquired land and signed an agreement. The authorities concerned are yet to approve the report.
"If the power plant is set up on the basis of the draft assessment, it will harm the Sundarbans," he added.
Abdul Matin of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon came down hard on the government for not allowing the representatives of BAPA, Transparency International Bangladesh, other civil society and environmental organisations to inspect the project site properly.
"The EIA has only looked at the issues for a 1,320MW project. But it did not clarify what the impact will be when 2,640MW or 5,280MW power will be produced from the same plant," Sheikh Md Shahidullah, convenor of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, told the meeting.
Environmentalist Iqbal Habib questioned the utility of the discussion the NTPC and the PDB would hold later this month to fix the tariff of the power to be produced by the coal-based project.
Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, energy adviser to the prime minister, said, "The government will not set up the plant in a callous manner. It will take into account the impacts of the project on the people and the environment."
Bangladesh has no other alternative but to set up coal-based power plants, as the natural gas reserves which now account for 80 percent of the power produced, are depleting, he added.
He rejected the claim that power from the plant would be exported to India.
Muhammad Enamul Huq, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources, said Bangladesh planned to produce 50 percent of its 24,000 MW electricity needed by 2021 to implement its Digital Bangladesh Vision.
"So, we need coal-based power plants. We have to overcome environmental hazards to reach the target," he added.
NTPC is India's largest power company with a current generating capacity of 40,674 MW. It has already formed a company with state-run Power Development Board to set up the plant.