Adani halts work at its $8 billion coal mine project in Australia: Report

New Delhi: Work on mining giant Adani's $7.72 billion Carmichael mining project in Australia has been halted, British newspaper the Guardian has reported.

The paper quoted sources as saying, "Adani last week advised four major engineering contractors to stop work on projects around the Carmichael mine in Queensland including a joint venture rail line and the expansion of Abbot Point port."

Adani made a statement stating that the company is reworking on its budget for the $7.72 billion project as the project is running behind schedule owning to various delays in project approvals.

"The project budget was based, understandably, on these anticipated approval timelines and milestones," Adani said in a statement.

"As a result of changes to a range of approvals over that time, it's necessary to synchronise our budget, project timelines and spending to meet those changes," it said.

"It is understood a team of up to 40 engineers at WorleyParsons’ Brisbane office, who were working with Aecon on the rail joint venture, were among those pulled off the project," the paper said.

This particular project of the company has been in trouble since the beginning. Earlier this year, an Australian environmental group dragged the company to court citing breach of environmental regulations.

Last year, Adani signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with State Bank of India (SBI) for a loan of upto $1 billion for the project. The bank immediately came under fire for extending loan to Adani Group which is seen to be close to the current Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

In March this year, the indigenous traditional landowners at the mining site rejected Adani's plans.