NEW DELHI: Before the environment minister Jairam Ramesh takes a call on Posco by the end of January the ministry is expected to put up the last of the three reviews of the Rs 54,000 crore project for his perusal – on the Coastal Regulation Zone clearance for the steel plant and the planned port. 

The review of the CRZ clearance for the project may land the Korean giant in trouble with sources suggesting that the ministry had found evidence of high erosion at the port site and was studying how it would impact the Paradip port downstream. 

Of the earlier two reviews — whether the project had followed regulations of the Forest Conservation Act and whether the environmental clearance process had been violated or not – the latter has gone in Posco's favour while former is tilted strongly against the Korean steel giant. 

The review of the environmental clearance given to Posco was bound to be controversial with the same committee that had given the nod in the first place being asked to review its own decision after the Meena Gupta committee had indicted the ministry for acting under pressure and giving a green signal to the project in violation of regulations.

It is always easier for the bureaucracy to review past clearances in wake of new evidence but the expert appraisal committee would naturally have found it difficult to reassess the same old information differently than it had done before. The review of the forest law compliance had too run into rough weather despite clear evidence that the project was in violation of the Forest Rights Act. The Forest Advisory Committee had finally after several u-turns finally recommended to the minister to withdraw the forest clearance to the integrated steel project. 

The CRZ clearance review of the project is being done at a time when the ministry was also assessing the impact of several minor captive ports coming up on the coastline and their consequences for existing large ports. Sources said that evidence of high levels of erosion at the proposed Posco port site had been found. 

Ramesh would have to take a call based on all three reviews. Legally though, even one adverse review is enough to seal the fate of the project as the plant falls foul of at least one of the several environmental laws it has been tested on.