Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Feb 11: Supply of coal to Udupi Power Corporation Ltd (erstwhile Nagarjuna) coming up near Padubidri, which plans to start thermal power generation by April this year, resumed on Wednesday, after the state High Court issued a stay order against a lower court order that had forbidden transportation of the imported coal to the company from Mangalore port by road.

Environmentalists, Nagesh Rao and Jayant Rao, had approached a local court recently, arguing that the company cannot transport coal by either rail or road, as the union ministry of environment had cleared the project, by permitting transportation of coal through conveyor system alone.  After the court issued a stay order, coal transportation to the company had been suspended since January 25.

On Wednesday February 10, a representative of the coal transporter company, filed a complaint in Padubidri police station, against Nagesh Rao and others. He said, that when the company trucks were returning after unloading coal on Tuesday night, Nagesh Rao, Jayant Bhat, Santosh Shetty and some others had stopped the trucks Nandikoor village and used abusive language against the staff, besides posing life threats, saying that they would not be spared, if they continued to transport coal by trucks.