'Green curbs, law & order in J'khand, Orissa hit coal output'

The Economic Survey 2010-11 today attributed the lower growth in coal production current year to environmental restrictions and poor law and order situation in Jharkhand and Orissa.

"The lower growth in production during the current year is primarily due to environmental restrictions, particularly, application of the comprehensive environment pollution index (CEPI), non-availability of forestry clearance against some of the projects," the survey, tabled in the Parliament, said.

The coal Ministry and its environment counterpart have been at loggerheads for over a year now after mining was disallowed in 203 blocks classified as 'no-go' zones in 2009, stalling projects with a production potential of 660 million tonne of coal a year.

In January this year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked the Jairam Ramesh-led environment ministry to revisit projects that were barred under CEPI.

The survey also blamed poor law and order situation in Jharkhand and Orissa and excessive rainfall in the western parts of the country for the lower growth in the production of the fossil fuel during the year.

India's production of raw coal during April-November 2010 was at 319.8 million tonne against 317.79 million tonne in the same period last year.

"The growth rate in the production of raw coal increased from 5.85% during 2006-07 to 7.98% in 2009-10, due to enhanced production by all the stakeholders, especially captive blocks and large PSUs like Coal India and Singareni Collieries Company Ltd," the survey said.

State-owned CIL, which accounts for over 80% of the domestic coal production through its seven subsidiaries, marginally missed its output target of 435 million tonne in 2009-10. It has a production target of about 460 MT for this fiscal.

The survey said that during 2009-10, import and export of coal was about 67.744 million tonne and 2.171 million tonne, respectively.