Tamil Nadu government's high-power committee inspects Sterlite Copper plant

THOOTHUKUDI: A high-power committee formed by the Tamil Nadu government inspected the structural and civil safety of the now defunct Sterlite Copper plant at SIPCOT complex on Monday. On behalf of Sterlite Copper, Vedanta group had moved the Supreme Court seeking permission to carry out maintenance of its copper smelter, which was shut down in public interest on May 28, 2018.

In order to respond to the Court, the team headed by Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) Member Secretary R Kannan took stock of the copper smelter, sulphuric acid plant, phosphoric plant, and other departments including the green belt area.

The green belt around the copper smelter is being maintained by the Ottapidaram Block Development Officer under the supervision of the local monitoring committee, as the Sterlite authorities were barred from entering the plant.

"We inspected the entire copper smelter plant in order to ascertain the structural and civil safety of the plant and the conditions of the premises. The inspection report will be furnished as an affidavit to the Supreme Court," said Kannan.

The members of the high level committee included Industrial Safety and Health, Joint Director (Registration) R Ravichandran, Fire and Rescue Services Deputy Director N Vijayakumar, Anna University, Civil Engineering, Division of Structural Engineering Professor Dr R Senthil, IIT Madras, Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering professor Dr V Sampath and TNPCB Joint Chief Environmental Engineer M Vjayalakshmi.