|
| Govt to limit coal mining to degraded forest areas |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi Jun 19, 2009, 00:58 IST |
|
In a bid to double coal production in the country by ensuring speedy environmental approvals to miners, the government is planning to limit coal mining activities to degraded forest areas.
Currently, coal mining is allowed in India both on degraded as well as non-degraded land areas subject to environmental approval from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF).
Identifying degraded areas separately from non-degraded ones and limiting mining to them is expected to fastrack the environment approval process.
“Much of our problems of delay in giving clearances will end once this distinction is made between degraded and non-degraded areas,” sad Jairam Ramesh, minister of State for Environment and Forest (Independent Charge).
Around 55 per cent of the total forest area in the country is degraded — not suitable for plantation.
Around 75 per cent of India’s coal reserves of 270 billion tonnes are located in the three states of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. Also, forest land accounts for 30-40 per cent of the total geographical area of these states.
Ensuring faster clearances for developing coal mines, according to the minister, will help in increasing the country’s overall coal production to over a billion tonnes in the next seven years. Currently, India produces around 500 million tonnes of the dry fuel annually. “If we do not reach a production level of 1 billion tonnes, our power plants will not materialise,” Ramesh said. He was briefing the media about the outcome of his meeting with Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal yesterday to discuss the issue. He also added that his ministry, along with the ministry of coal and the state-owned Coal India, was trying to find out which of the coal reserves in the country were in forest areas that can be diverted.
India generates around 690 billion units of electricity annually — around 10-15 per cent less than the overall demand for power. In a bid to bridge this demand and supply gap of power, the government is planning to add over 78,700 Mw of power generation capacity in the current Plan period ending March 2012.
Every month, around 20-25 of the 81 thermal power plants in India are forced to run at critical coal stocks level — with a coal supply of less than seven days, as per the latest data obtained from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).
According to estimates, annual coal shortage in the country is expected to surpass 200 million tonnes by the end of the current Plan period. “Our coal output will be raised to 520 million tonnes by 2012 and further 664 million tonnes by 2016,” said Partha S Bhattacharya, chairman of Coal India.
Experts, however, believe that making distinctions between degraded and non-degraded areas for coal mining might not be sufficient.
“This categorisation would not be sufficient unless the rest of the evaluation process, which is currently project specific, is also replaced by a category wise evaluation where the norms of approval are pre-specified,” said Kuljit Singh, head, Transaction Advisory Services, Ernst & Young.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Read Business news in |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Content Guide
