Question remains on CIL's expansion projects in Chhattisgarh

Coal India's expansion schemes are likely to take longer than expected in Chhattisgarh as the state has not submitted its plan as to how it will minimise environmental damage due to mining activities.

"...Korba will take longer because state has not submitted any remediation plan," according to a paper presented by the Ministry of Forest and Environment (MoEF) before Group of Ministers (GoM) on Coal said.

However, the company's expansion plans in Orissa have got a boost with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) lifting the ban on Angul Talcher area in Orissa and assuring the GoM to lift the moratorium in five more coalfields -- Chandrapur, Singrauli, Jharia, IB Valley and Raniganj.

These coalfields fall under the Comprehensive Environment Pollution Index (CEPI), it said, adding there would be delays for Korba in Chhattisgarh.

CEPI captures the various health dimensions of the environment and acts as a warning tool to facilitate early intervention.

Coal India's subsidiary South Eastern Coalfields Limited has two expansion projects in Korba -- Gevra and Manikpur -- that are awaiting environmental clearances since 2009.

While Gevra project entails expanding capacity to 43.75 million tonne (MT) from 35 MT, there are plans to double Manikpur capacity to 5 MT.

Korba coalfield has total coal reserves of 10,115.21 MT.

The Environment Ministry in the beginning of this month had lifted the ban on development projects in the Talcher area of Orissa, paving way for 10 new and expansion projects of Coal India, stranded so far.

The ban was imposed in January 2010, on 43 clusters nationwide falling under the "critically polluted" area under CEPI and the categorisation had stalled projects.

In 2009, the MoEF had introduced CEPI to categories the environmental quality at given locations and conducted a nation-wide assessment of industrial clusters.

The MOEF has extended the moratorium on some clusters till September this year.