Australia's Queensland government today said that it has listed Indian mining giant Adani's 21.7 billiondollar coal mine project as critical infrastructure tofacilitate it even as it underlined that the state's taxpayermoney would not gotowards funding the controversy- hit project to build one of the world's largest coal mines.
"The states taxpayermoney would not gotowards funding of the project and in order tofacilitate the project, the state governmenthad worked through the approval processes and recently listed it as critical infrastructure," said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Palaszczuk said she will meet Gautam Adani, Chairman of Adani Group, along with senior representatives of company next weekregarding the project.
Speaking at the stateparliament, the Premier said state government was working constructively with Adani Group on its mine, rail link and port project and that theproject was projected to generate thousands of direct construction and operations jobs and many thousand more indirectly.
"Adani has already made a significant commitment to these projects - 3.3 billion dollar in fact. This investment to date is part of theircommitment to a long term future with Queensland, and not only with coal," she said.
She also also welcomed the Indian energy giant's announcement for building 200 million dollars solar energy plant in Moranbah.
"I welcome the recent announcement for a 200 million dollars solar energy project for Moranbah, and revealed its broader plans to generate 1500 megawatts of solar power in Australia within five years," she said and added theproject was to pass throughover200 condition applied to it.
She said that the focus of her meeting with Gautam Adani will be to secure a commitment to regional Queensland jobs.
The company has faced a protracted battle to establish Australia's largest thermal coal mine.
Adani's plan to build one of the world's largest coal mines in Australia, recently received a boost by a last-minute amendment to Queensland's new water laws that would exempt the project from any public objection process.
The Queensland government has granted Adani's Carmichael mine project in the Galilee Basin an 11th-hour exemption to new water laws that could have seen the project subjected to further legal challenges.
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