Government going ahead with Athirappilly project

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Neither Prime Minister Manmohan Singh nor his office had stated anything against the 163MW Athirappilly hydel project, Electricity Minister Aryadan Mohammed told the Assembly on Tuesday, adding that the UDF Government was still pursuing the project.
''There is nothing in the files to show that either the Prime Minister or his office had said anything against the project,'' he said in reply to a question. "The Salim Ali Foundation had lodged a complaint against the project with the Prime Minister and he had forwarded it to the Ministry of Environment and Forests. That is the routine procedure,'' he said.The government has not scrapped either the Athirappilly project or the Cheemeni thermal power project. Both the projects will be implemented after reaching a consensus on environmental concerns, the minister said. On Athirappilly, he said that it was a project that the MoEF had cleared thrice.