BHUBANESWAR: The State government on Thursday directed the Angul district administration to prepare a comprehensive rehabilitation package for people who would be affected by the development of Mandakini-B coal bock of Talcher Coalfields. Mandakini-B coal block has been allocated to NTPC for its 4,000 MW power plant at Ramagundam in Telangana.
Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy gave this direction during review of the project here with senior officials of the government and NTPC.Principal Secretary of Steel and Mines Surendra Kumar informed the meeting that Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies has made the pre-study preparations for socio-economic survey of the area. The survey will start in the coming week.
“As per 2011 census, around 1,800 houses in 12 villages with a population of about 7,500 are likely to be affected by the project. Detailed assessment will be undertaken once the socio-economic survey is completed,” official sources said. The Chief Secretary directed Angul Collector Siddharth Shankar Swain to prepare the rehabilitation package as per provisions of the Coal Bearing Areas Development Act and rehabilitation policy of the State.
Tripathy said the package should be in conformity with the guidelines of the government.Matters relating to forest diversion proposal, grant of statutory clearances by competent authorities, drilling activities by the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute for estimating resources and preparation of scientific mining plan were discussed.Additional Chief Secretary of Forest and Environment Mona Sharma said the forest diversion proposal is ready and it will be sent to the Ministry of Forest and Environment in next week.
The tentative project cost has been estimated at `4,580 crore. The actual project cost will be available after preparation of feasibility report, sources said.Mandakini-B coal block covers an area of 20.73 sq km (2,073 ha) and villages to be affected are Changuria, Santrabandh, Sunaripal, Takua, Bainda, Balipata, Changudia, Debipatanapur, Kakudia, Kalyanpur, Sanbirabarpur and Santrabondh.