Ethanol plant management blames forest officials

Sridhar Venigalla, managing director of the plant, Aithanoli Cibus Products Private Limited (ACPPL), said they had obtained all mandatory clearances from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to set up the ethanol plant.

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: Responding to a report published in these columns on Thursday on a proposed ethanol plant and 3MW co-power generation unit to be set up at Metpalli near Ankusapur in Kaghaznagar, the management claimed that they had all clearances, but forest officials were creating problems in establishing the project.

Sridhar Venigalla, managing director of the plant, Aithanoli Cibus Products Private Limited (ACPPL), said they had obtained all mandatory clearances from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to set up the ethanol plant. “However, Forest officials are intentionally harassing us by issuing show-case notices and sending staffers to the site of the plant at regular intervals,” he claimed.

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He said the Telangana Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) issued a no-objection certificate (NoC) and a conservation plan with a budget of Rs.2.16 crore to be spent in phased manner for conservation of wildlife in 10 years, considering movement of tigers in a 10 km radius of the project site. After submission of the NoC and conservation plan, our proposal was placed before an expert appraisal committee for presentation.

“During the presentation, officials of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change uploaded a KML file of the project site and verified it in the Decision Support System (DSS) of Parivesh 2.0, an application of the ministry. The DSS showed that approval of the National Board for Wild Life (NBWL) was not required. Accordingly, environmental clearance was issued on June 3, 2023,” he explained.

Sridhar alleged that while higher authorities of the Forest department gave their nod to establish the plant, lower rank officials from the district were causing hurdles to the project. He said the firm was planning to move legally against the officials for obstructing the plant which would provide around 400 jobs to locals.

Stating that the capacity of the plant was 1 lakh litres per day, he said water from the nearby stream and canals of the Kumram Bheem project would not be polluted as the plant was a zero-discharge unit, while fly ash generated from the plant would be converted into bricks. The management had already entered into an agreement with an oil and gas company promising to supply ethanol from March 2025, he added.