Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Aug 23: Secretary in the union steel ministry, Atul Chaturvedi, said that the Supreme Court (SC) will be approached for its nod to transport about 24 million tonnes of iron ore worth Rs 2,500 crore that still remains in the mining area allotted to Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd (KIOCL).
He was speaking in a press conference held here on Sunday August 22, after visiting KIOCL at Panambur here, to inspect its working.
“About 54 million tonnes of ore was left in the mining area leased to the company, when a case was filed in a court in 2002. As per court’s permission, 30 million tonnes of ore was taken away till December 2005. When the SC was approached to transport the remaining ore, it disallowed our application. It said that it would get the ore removed through other companies. But even after four years, the ore stock continues to remain there, and it gets washed away with water, into Bhadra River, which harms environment,” he explained.
He said that the SC will also be approached with a request to permit the company to remove the silt from Lakya Dam near the mining area. He hoped that once this is done, it would be possible to supply water from the dam to Mangalore, and hoped that the SC will permit the company to undertake dredging work, as it is not anti-environment. The soil extracted can then be used for manufacturing units like tiles, he felt. He solicited cooperation of the state government for various plans of the company including tourism activities in Kudremukh.
The other request of the company is to use the huge machineries lying idle at Kudremukh, for the coal mining units of Steel Authority of India, as their maintenance costs heavily to the company.
He said that his ministry has always opposed the export of raw iron ore, and strongly held himself in favour of leasing out mining areas to those companies which manufacture value-added products by using ore.
Union steel ministry joint secretary, George Elias, KIOCL chairman, K Ranganath, directors, Mohanti, Ramesh Kumar and V R Shastri were present.