Of fixing price for natural gas

On the face, it seems like a fight between brothers. One brother, in this case the elder, Mukesh Ambani, managed to get control over the country's gas reserves. The other, Anil Ambani, inherited the power generation business. When they were in it together, it worked brilliantly, the gas, priced low, would make it to the power plant, which in turn would yield rich dividends.

MONEYMAKERS

coal project: The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) will sign the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Videocon Power Ltd for its coal-based project in Chennai. The cost of the project is Rs 4,423.80 crore. The Department of Coal has allotted a mining block in the Talcher coalfields to Videocon for captive mining. However, to bring down the ash content to 30 per cent as specified by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, the company plans to import coal and blend it with indigenous coal.

SEARCH FOR A SUBSTITUTE

search for a substitute: To ascertain the viability of propane as an eco-friendly fuel, the SC directed the Central government on December 9, to launch a project for conducting tests for 50 two- and three-wheelers in Delhi ( Down To Earth , Vol 5, No15). The court asked the government and the Gas Authority of India Ltd to assist g&t Yoga Tech, a private company, to carry out experiments on the 50 two-stroke vehicles and submit the findings within four months.

INDIA

• As per the directive of the Supreme Court, the first green bench in the judicial history of the country sat at the Calcutta High Court n June 3. The bench will deal exclusively with environmental and pollution control matters and was set up following a judgement on a writ petition filed last year by the Howrah Ganatantrik Nagarik Samity. • All of Delhi's 274 petrol pumps will soon he authorised to carry out a pollution check. The department of

No 'gassing' the public

Advocate Kamini Jaiswal has filed a public interest petition in the Supreme Court beseaching it to order the closure of underground gas pipelines till safety measures against leakages are ensured. Jaiswal claims that contractors to the Gas Authority of India and the Oil and Natural Gas Commission have flagrantly flouted safety norms in laying the pipes.

CNG-run cabs for Bombay

Students and professors of the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay test-ran the prototype of a car that runs on compressed natural gas (CNG). The Rs 5 million research project, which took six months to complete, was sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology. While Premier Automobiles provided the car, the Gas Authority of India Ltd chipped in with the gas.