IMG to give some more time to 10 coal mines to seek clearances

It will seek the current status of stage II forest clearance with regard to the 10 coal blocks

The Inter-Ministerial Group which is meeting next week will not immediately take a call on deallocation of 10 mines but will give one last chance to companies like JSPL, Tata Steel and JSW Steel which are yet to obtain forest clearances to seek green nod within a given time frame.

"During the meeting next week, the inter-ministerial group (IMG) will seek the current status of stage II forest clearance with regard to the 10 coal blocks and give a certain time period to the companies to obtain clearances," a source close to the development said.

"Immediately, the IMG will not take a call on deallocation of the blocks," the official added.

The Coal Ministry had earlier said that the 26th meeting of the IMG will be held on February 25 to consider the cases of allocattees which were required to obtain forest clearance (stage-II).

According to the coal ministry, the 10 coal blocks where stage-II forest clearance is pending include Rohne coal block in Jharkhand jointly allocated to JSW Steel and Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd; Jitpur coal block in Jharkhand allocated to Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Brinda and Sasai coal block in Jharkhand allocated to Abhijeet Infrastructure Ltd.

The Coal Ministry has also asked the allocattees of the 10 coal blocks to attend the meeting and make presentations before the IMG regarding their preparedness for obtaining stage II forest clearance.

It had also requested three states -- Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh -- to nominate a representative from each state to attend the meeting.

The Coal Ministry had recently asked the Environment Ministry to assess the feasibility of grant of forest clearances (stage II) with regard to the 10 coal blocks and send its comments by this week.

IMG, set up under the chairmanship of Additional Secretary, Coal, to review the progress of development of captive coal blocks alloted to private companies, has members from various ministries, including steel and power.

In the two-day meeting held earlier this month, the IMG reviewed the status of 61 coal blocks and recommended deallocation with regard to 28 mines.