To begin in October:
New Delhi Adani Group plans to start work on its $16.5 billion Carmichael coal project in Australia in October, chairman Gautam Adani said, buoyed by the dismissal of appeals filed against the project by Australian activists.
“We will start construction of the project by October and first coal will come out in March 2020,” Adani, 55, said in an interview on Friday night.
The remarks followed a boost received by the group on two different fronts last week.
First, a full bench of the federal court in Brisbane dismissed challenges from the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and native title objections from a central Queensland resident, Adrian Burragubba, according to a PTI report. Burragubba was also involved in an action dismissed earlier by the Queensland Court of Appeal relating to the granting of a mining lease covering the Carmichael resource. Adani, in a statement last week, said the court rulings had reinforced its legal right to develop its Carmichael thermal coal resource.
Second, the group has received a clean chit from the adjudicating authority of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on allegations that it inflated the declared value of goods imported under the power and infrastructure heads, which attract zero or less than 5% duty, The Indian Express reported on 25 August.
Adani, who ranked 250 in the Forbes World’s Billionaire List 2017 with a net worth of $5.8 billion, linked the controversies to the Carmichael project.
“Everythingthatwehavedone is in the ambit of law—either in India or in Australia, which is an OECD country with stronger rules and laws,” Adani said. “What needs to be looked at is that the timing of the controversies coincides with commencement of the project in Australia.”
After battling environmental protests and legal and regulatory hurdles for seven years, Adani Enterprises Ltd said in June that it was finally ready to proceed with the Carmichael coal and rail project in central Queensland, Australia. The company’s board gave its final go-ahead to the project, Adani said.
“We are committed to the larger purpose, to make India energy secure,” Adani said in the interview. “All these controversies have vested interests and go against India’s interest of providing electricity to 100 million people. The DRI clean-chit vindicates our stand,” Adani said.
Adani Group has faced opposition from environmental groups concerned that the coal project will result in higher pollution levels and damage the Great Barrier Reef marine park in northern Queensland.
Adani plans to spend $16.5 billion in Australia of which an investment of $3.5 billion has already been made. Adani said $7 billion will be invested in the first phase by 2020 and $9 billion over