Written environment nod for 14 CIL projects: Jaiswal

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal today said his ministry has received environment clearance in writing for Coal India's 14 projects.

"In written we have received clearance of 14 projects of Coal India from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF)," the minister told PTI.

Elaborating on the project, an official with the ministry said of the 14 projects, five are from Mahanadi Coalfields Limited and three each from Eastern Coalfields Limited and Western Coalfields Limited.

While two are from Bharat Coking Coal, one is from South Eastern Coalfields, he said.

Another source with Coal India said these projects have received environmental clearance but with certain conditions.

He, however, refused to specify conditions.

All these projects of Coal India were awaiting environmental clearance and had come up for consideration before a meeting of Expert Appraisal Committee of MoEF last month.

They had been held up for the last six months to one year on the environmental issue, the official said.

Last month, the minister had said that the MoEF has cleared 7 to 8 more projects of Coal India which were stranded for about a year.

The development came close on the heels of Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh softening his stance on "no go" status for coal blocks falling in environmentally sensitive areas during the meeting of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on Coal last month.

During the meeting, the minister had assured he will be "positive" toward infrastructure projects.