PM to review coal, power projects on July 1

Concerned over delays in execution of projects due to inter-ministerial differences, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a high-level meeting to resolve issues like coal shortages and environment clearances with the respective ministers on July 1.

"The meeting will be held on July 1 to assess the progress made in the first four years of the current Plan and resolve the differences among the ministries," a senior Power Ministry official said.

This will include the power capacity addition targets, achieved between FY08 and FY11, and projects stranded due to coal shortages and environment clearance, he said.

The meeting, to be chaired by Singh, will be attended by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The meeting would make an assessment on the actual requirements of Power, Coal and other ministries for the terminal year (FY12) of the current Plan Period and next Five-Year Plan (2012-17).

According to an estimate made by the Planning Commission, the demand-supply gap for coal in the ongoing year, which is also the terminal year of current Five-Year Plan, has been assessed at 142 million tonne (MT) with domestic availability of only 554 MT against the requirement of 696 MT.

Coal ministry is of the view that 'no-go' policy of Environment ministry, under which mining in 203 coal blocks is not allowed, has been the major reason for the increase in coal shortages.

According to the ministry, the 'no go' mining issue has affected a potential production of 660 MT of coal per annum.

Last month, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal had said that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was concerned over the economic growth being hampered by the bottlenecks in the coal production.

At the same time, the Prime Minister was also keen that the issues raised by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) should also be resolved, he said.

The Group of Ministers, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is already on the job to find a common ground between the MoEF on the one hand and coal, power and steel ministries on the other.

According to the Planning Commission, the country's coal shortage may soar to 200 MT by 2017 against 142 MT by 2012. The demand for dry fossil fuel by FY17 has been projected at 1,000 MT against a production of 800 MT.