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Kerala greens vs Enron: Irinavu project sparks row over 'dangerous' naphtha

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Enron International's attempt to set up a thermal power plant in Kerala is likely to face resistance from environmental groups.

On March 11, Enron's vice-president Gregory Blair announced that the work on the long-pending power project near Kannur will be launched next month.

Various environmental groups met at Kannur the other day and decided to stop Enron from going ahead with the 513 mega-watt power project at Irinavi. They have formed a 50-member Action Council to mobilise squads for the task.

The convention has also decided to take out a rally on April 30 from the nearby town of Pappinisserry to the project site, a distance of four kilometres. It will feature people who will be directly or indirectly affected by the project.

The convention was attended by representatives of a dozen-odd environmental organisations, including the National Alliance for People's Movement; hundreds of people pledged to stop the Enron project.

"We will not allow the plant to be built at the thickly populated Irinavu. Our volunteers will physically encounter the Enron men if they ever venture to start the work," declared D Surendranath, a leader of the Action Council.

Surendranath told Rediff On The NeT that they were opposing the project because it violates the norms laid down by environment ministry in 1994 and the Coastal Zone Regulation Act of the government of India. The project is said to affect the environment.

The greens object to the use of naphtha as the fuel for power generation. It will damage the environment, they say. The Kerala high court had expressed reservations about a naphtha-based project being set up at the thickly populated Irinavu, said Surendranath.

"We are also concerned about the water position. Since no alternate source of water has been proposed for the project, they will have to bank on the existing source, which is not even sufficient to meet the present needs of the people in the region," he added.

The people are also worried over the possibility of large-scale displacement when Enron takes up the development of the port in the subsequent phase of the project. There will be a need for 5,000 acres of land for the expansion of the Azhikal port. Acquisition of the land would lead to displacement of thousands of families in the region.

"We have no idea how and where these people will be rehabilitated," said Surendranath. Over 170 acres land already acquired for the first phase of the project is said to be in violation of the CZR Act. He said the land acquired fell within the coastal zone notified as per the Act.

Enron does not seem to be worried. Blair and his Indian promoter K P P Nambiar feel all bottlenecks against the project have been cleared, and add that they are in a position to start work immediately as they have the full support of the state and central governments.

The Communist government in the state had refused approval for the project in April 1997 on the ground that Enron was at the centre of a controversy in India.

The then power minister Pinarayi Vijayan had stated that the 'Enron controversy' -- a reference to the Dhabol power project in Maharashtra -- had acquired notoriety, and caused confusion, public anger, litigation and protests. So the state government did not want its project to languish in the middle of protests and controversies.

But the state government fell in line when the central government raised the foreign investment approval limit to Rs 15 billion last year, within which the Enron's Kerala project cost falls. The project, which is a state-of-the-art thermal plant, is proposed to be commissioned in 30 months.

However, the observers feel the going for Enron will not be smooth as Politburo member V S Achutanandan, who calls the shots in the Communist Party of India-Marxist in Kerala, is still not reconciled to the prospect of welcoming an American multinational. Power Minister S Sarma, considered a protégé of Achutanandan, had caused considerable scare in the Enron camp by vehemently criticising the capital cost revision of the project by Enron.

The CPI-M's trade union wing, the Centre for Indian Trade Unions, which had moved the court against the Dabhol project in Maharashtra, is already antagonistic to the US multinational. However, Enron has an excellent tactician in Nambiar, who had worked as advisor to then industries minister K R Gowri during the previous 1987-91 Left Democratic Front regime and has so far been successful in tackling the hardline comrades in the state.

Business News

Kerala