After Mahuva debacle, Nirma explores Rajasthan for its plant

As Nirma's planned cement plant at Mahuva in Bhavnagar district remains wrangled in legal process, the company is learnt to be in talks with Ahmedabad-based Siddhi Vinayak Cement Limited (SVCL) to set up a plant in negihbouring Rajasthan.

Sources close to the development said Nirma Group founder and chairman Karsanbhai Patel was in Pali district in south Rajasthan for three days last week for a "cement related work".

Officials in Pali confirmed SVCL and Nirma are setting up a green-field cement plant at Jaitaran, with a joint investment of Rs 1,500 crore. They said SVCL has already purchased land for the plant with an annual capacity of two million tonnes.

While officials from the Nirma Group refused to confirm the development, Pali District Collector Niraj K Pawan said, "Nirma officials have not intimated us about their plan but we have come to know they have tied up with Siddhi Vinayak Cement Ltd to set up a cement plant."

"The project is happening. However, we do not wish to comment any further," said an official from the corporate office of SVCL.

Sources in the Gujarat government said the most expensive components of the planned factory would be the kiln and machinery, which, if being shipped or already delivered and lying unused, would amount to huge losses. They said their counterparts in Rajasthan have also informally apprised them of Nirma's activities.

The company's plans for a cement factory in Mahuva has been opposed since the beginning by local agriculturists led by rebel BJP MLA Dr Kanu Kalsaria, who insist the plant would lie on 268 hectares of land, large parts of which is an artificial wetland and adversely affect locals' livelihoods.

The controversy had later reached the Gujarat High Court, the Supreme Court and currently the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

In the course of events, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on December 1, 2011 revoked the Environment Clearance it had granted to Nirma in 2008. Nirma subsequently challenged this order in the NGT. When the locals opposing the planned plant heard of this, they asked they also be named as respondents in the case.

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