Adani defending key India projects against environmental challenges
By Dhwani Pandya and Arpan Chaturvedi
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian billionaire Gautam Adani's group is battling allegations in court this month that its planned multibillion-dollar power plant and a luxury housing complex breach environment laws, adding to its many legal headaches.
Such allegations have often troubled Adani projects in India and abroad. In Australia, the group battled a seven-year activist campaign against its Carmichael coal mine, and construction at its seaport in south India was halted for months in 2022 due to protests over coast erosion.
Now, Adani Group is defending itself against allegations made in India's National Green Tribunal that it started work on a $2 billion power plant without waiting for environmental clearance. This case is set for a hearing on Friday.
The lawsuit by an activist says the site for the plant is within a forest in the Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh. The suit seeks to halt the project saying it would devastate the area and impact wildlife, court papers show.
Adani denied in a March 6 filing that any of its activities at the site are environmentally damaging. "The project land is not a forest land," Adani also said in the filing.
State pollution control official Reetesh Kumar Tewari told Reuters that Adani stopped work at the site after it was sent a November warning notice about the construction.
Adani Group did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Debadityo Sinha, the activist who filed the lawsuit, declined comment citing ongoing legal proceedings.
Legal cases in India can drag on for years, and environment-related challenges often emerge as a sticking point for big companies.
The latest legal tussles come just as India's government has asked a local court to deliver a summons from the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission to group founder Gautam Adani over his alleged role in a $265 million bribery scheme. Adani has denied those allegations and said they are baseless.
LUXURY PLANS AND SLUM REDEVELOPMENT
Adani is pursuing two big projects in Mumbai, one of world's most expensive real estate markets, and both are being challenged over environmental issues.
Its luxury residential project in the coastal suburb of Bandra is being challenged by another activist, Zoru Bhathena, and a residents group who are trying to halt the project.
They are arguing in a case at the high court in Mumbai that the land Adani plans to use for the project has been reclaimed from the sea and remains a legally protected coastal region where no construction is allowed.
India's environment ministry and the Adani Group disagree, telling the court in February the land is no longer classified as a protected area following a rule change in 2019, non-public court filings reviewed by Reuters show.
The court has described the Bandra case as involving a "vital issue relating to environment protection". The next hearing on the matter is set for March 27.
Adani's other high-profile project in Mumbai is the redevelopment of Dharavi slum, one of the group's most ambitious undertakings. It started work there after winning a $619 million redevelopment bid two years ago.
Dharavi, about three-quarters the size of New York's Central Park and where 1 million people need to be rehoused, was featured in the 2008 Oscar-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire". Its open sewers and shared toilets, close to Mumbai's international airport, stand in contrast to India's development boom across residential, commercial and infrastructure sectors.
The Adani-led Dharavi redevelopment company, now called Navbharat Mega Developers, was allotted 256 acres (104 hectares) of salt-pan lands in September to build rental housing for Dharavi residents as part of the project.
But activist lawyer Sagar Devre has filed a public interest litigation in the Mumbai high court against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, alleging it changed rules in August 2024 to allow residential development on salt-pan lands - ecologically sensitive areas that help in flood protection.
The court has not yet heard the case, but the rule change has been a topic of political wrangling, with India's Congress Party saying it is an example of Modi changing policy to help Adani - allegations of impropriety both have repeatedly denied.
Spokespersons for Modi's federal government did not respond to a request for comment on the salt-pan land issue.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US files lawsuit against New York for blocking immigration officials near court
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit challenging a New York state law that blocks immigration officials from arresting individuals at or near New York courthouses. "Specifically, the complaint challenges a law, called the Protect Our Courts Act, that purposefully shields dangerous aliens from being lawfully detained at or on their way to or from a courthouse and imposes criminal liability for violations of the shield," the Justice Department said in a statement. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said New York was employing policies similar to those used by California to prevent "illegal aliens from apprehension." "This latest lawsuit in a series of sanctuary city litigation underscores the Department of Justice's commitment to keeping Americans safe and aggressively enforcing the law," she said. Demonstrators once again took to the streets in major U.S. cities on Thursday to protest President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. A federal judge in San Francisco will hear arguments later in the day as part of California's lawsuit against Trump's deployment of U.S. troops in Los Angeles.
Eater
26 minutes ago
- Eater
La Grenouille, Frozen in Time, Now Serves Fancy Food From a Chinese Chain
A Chinese chain has moved into Upper East Side icon La Grenouille – leaving the dining room pretty much as it has looked for the last 50 years, New York Post first reported. Chinese duck house iDen & Quanjude Beijing Duck House – with only one other location in North America – has opened in the former space, offering 80 seats and the same La Grenouille ambiance – with a very different menu and backstory. The original location of iDen opened in China in 1864 and now has around 50 locations there. Andy Zhang bought the La Grenouille building (3 E. 52nd Street, at Fifth Avenue) last year for an eye-popping $14.2 million; he also owns a location in Vancouver. A manager told t he Post they considered designing the interior like the Canada location, but 'people suggested not to do that, and to keep most of the old La Grenouille because it has so many good memories for New Yorkers,' he said. The restaurant's specialty is the 'Quanjude Signature Beijing Duck,' priced at $128, or a version with caviar for $268. Other items on the menu include an Indonesian bird's nest with malva nut($98) and a 24-inch sea cucumber ($88). Dhamaka (119 Delancey Street, at Essex Street) on the Lower East Side is rolling out a regional Indian brunch for $45 per person from 11:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. weekends. It starts with a journey through Kashmiri Wazwan, according to a spokesperson. Dishes include a choice of paneer Kanti with chiles or murg tujj, grilled yogurt-marinated chicken. Second-course choices are chaman kaliya, paneer in yellow gravy, or gushtaba, mutton meatballs. Another new brunch option comes from Preston Clark's Bar Mercer (24 W. Houston Street, at Mercer Street), with items like smoked salmon toast, buttermilk blueberry pancakes, hangover pasta, crab cakes Benedict, and a brunch burger topped with bacon and a fried egg. The menu runs Saturday and Sunday; doors open at noon. Döner Haus opens a Bayside, Queens (4004 Bell Boulevard at 40th Avenue) outpost on June 13, but today from 6 to 9 p.m., to celebrate the opening, the shop is offering döner sandwiches for $1. The sandwiches are listed as $12.99, filled with halal beef, chicken, or a combination of both. Döner Haus first opened in the East Village with a logo that Pornhub threatened to sue them over.
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Temasek joins Microsoft, BlackRock and MGX to develop AI infrastructure
By Yantoultra Ngui SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Temasek has joined a consortium backed by Microsoft, BlackRock and tech investment company MGX to invest and expand artificial intelligence infrastructure, according to BlackRock's investor day presentation slides on Thursday. The Singapore state investment company has joined AI Infrastructure Partnership, a group that also includes BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners, the slides showed. AIP, formed in September with a goal to initially invest more than $30 billion in AI-related projects, is one of the world's largest efforts to invest in data centres and energy facilities needed to power AI applications such as ChatGPT. It aims to mobilise up to $100 billion including debt financing for such investments, which will focus on the United States. Temasek's participation comes after the Kuwait Investment Authority joined AIP earlier in June. The sovereign wealth fund of Kuwait was the first non-founder financial anchor investor to join the consortium, which also counts partners including Nvidia and billionaire Elon Musk's xAI. "Temasek's investment in the AI Infrastructure Partnership reflects our focus on the big shifts and trends of the future," Ravi Lambah, Temasek's head of strategic initiatives, said in an email to Reuters. "AI is potentially the most transformative and impactful technology for all sectors and businesses," he added. Temasek did not disclose financial details of the investment. The global investment company had a net portfolio value of S$389 billion ($304 billion) as of March 31, 2024, according to its website. ($1 = 1.2804 Singapore dollars) Sign in to access your portfolio
