Coal India may lose Rs19,000 cr by March 2012

Delays in environment clearances to Coal India projects may result in loss of about 190 million tonnes  output valued at about Rs 18,800 crore, to the country's largest miner by March 2012.

Coal India, which through its initial share sale's resounding success raised a record Rs 15,200 crore, making the IPO the biggest in India so far, faces delays in environment clearances .

As many as 154 projects of Coal India await green nod at Centre and state levels, a top Coal Ministry official told PTI.

"These 154 projects are spread across over 26,000 hectares of land and have a production projection of about 210 million tonnes.

"Of these 105 are awaiting stage - I clearance while the rest wait for stage - II nod," the official said.

Stage I approval for diversion of forest land by the user agency is granted after compliance of certain stipulations like impact assessment on the area. State II is final clearance.

Out of 105 projects awaiting stage-I forestry clearance, as many as 77 projects are pending at the state level and 28 projects at MoEF (Ministry of Environment and Forest) level, the official said.

Similarly, of the remaining 49 projects awaiting stage - II clearance, 41 are pending at state level and the rest are awaiting MoEF nod, he added.

Of the projected 210 MT, production from about 190 MT was envisaged during the 11th Five Year Plan ( 2007-12), he said.

Coal India at present sells its product at around USD 22 (about Rs 990) a tonne and going by that account, 190 MT would be valued at about Rs 18,800 crore at current prices.

The official said that as per the present provisions, new projects should be cleared in 150 days while renewal should take 120 days time but "average pendency for forest proposals is 3 to 6 years on date."

The Ministry has raised its concern at various levels including before the Prime Minister office.

"Ministry of Coal is not seeking any special procedure for clearing forestry proposals. It is only requesting for expediting the forest clearance within the existing legal framework ...," a recent letter by the Ministry of Coal (MoC) said.

"The enormous delay in processing the proposals at state and central government levels does need streamline, the letter said adding, "forest proposals have to move through 34 desks and whenever a query is raised it travels back and forth."