Govt to start talks with Russia for coal gasification project
Press Trust Of India / New Delhi Oct 14, 2009, 00:32 IST
Assuring that the government would take all necessary policy steps to launch coal gasification in India, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said today he would initiate talks with Russiaon this.
“We will initiate dialogue with Russia for coal gasification project. We will take all necessary steps to make the project go on stream,” Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told reporters here, adding that Russia had over 30 years of experience in coal gasification.
Coal gasification is an environment-friendly way of converting coal into hydrogen and other valuable energy.
Russia’s expertise would help India increase its resources to generate power and “use the gas to bridge the resource shortfall”.
He added a majority of the coal reserves were in the forest areas and high-end technology was needed to use the natural resources.
“As much as 60 per cent of coal resource available cannot be utilised because it is under forest cover. We have to bring the technology in place soon,” he said.
The coal ministry issued guidelines for coal gasification in the first 100 days of the UPA government’s return to power.
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