NEW DELHI, July 3: An independent report into a huge coal power station being built in energy-starved India on Tuesday called for construction to be halted immediately due to environmental damage. The Tata Mundra plant, in the western state of Gujurat, was approved by the government in 2006 and, when completed, it will provide 4,000-megawatts of power to 16 million people across the fast-developing country.

But the reports’ authors said the government and project leaders had “ignored the social and environment high costs” of building the plant.—AFP