India's Adani to start work on mine near Great Barrier Reef

Sydney : Indian mining giant Adani on Tuesday said it will start work on a huge US$16 billion coal project that environmentalists warn will damage Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Billionaire chairman Gautam Adani said in Townsville that the board had made its "final investment decision" which marked the "official start" of the Carmichael coal mine,  destined to be one of the world's largest.

The controversial project -- the biggest investment in Australia ever by an Indian company --  encountered numerous regulatory and legal hurdles, leading to seven years of delays, with a lease finally granted last year.

It has also been slammed by environmentalists who say it will hurt the reef, a World Heritage-listed biodiverse site stretching along Australia's northeastern coast, which is already threatened by climate change.

"Now the time for waiting is over and the time for doing is beginning," said Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan.

The development proposes exporting coal to India from a massive open-cut and underground coal mine 160 kilometres (100 miles) northwest of Clermont in central Queensland, home to the reef, via a 189-kilometre rail link to port.

The conglomerate, which had delayed final approval due to uncertainty over royalty payments, forecasts it will produce 60 million tonnes of thermal coal a year for export.

It also estimates it will generate 10,000 direct and indirect jobs, with pre-construction works starting in the September quarter of 2017.