Essar Gets Pollution Board's Go Ahead for CBM Project

The West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) has given a green signal to Essar Oil to go ahead with its coal bed methane project.

The company can go ahead and continue drilling wells for the third phase of the project in Raniganj, Times of India reported

A few months back, the pollution board received a public complaint that the Essar Oil authorities had drilled a well within 300 metres from Nachan village, violating environmental norms.

"The environmental norm requires us to maintain a distance of 300 metres from the habitat and we have maintained a distance of 500 metres while drilling the well," said an Essar spokesperson, Times of India reported.

The total CBM acreage of the Raniganj gas field is 500 sqkm and Essar currently produces about 1 lakh SCM (standard cubic metre) gas per day.