Coal mining to be resumed in Arunachal Pradesh after 7 years

The Arunachal Pradesh government decided to resume coal mining in the state, which has been suspended since May, 2012 after a direction by the Centre following involvement of insurgent groups in the extraction process, officials said here on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court in a recent judgement lifted the suspension from Namchik-Namphuk, the lone coalfield in the state, in Changlang district, the officials said.

At a meeting here on Monday, Chief Minister Pema Khandu directed the officials to settle the matter by paying an additional levy of Rs 32 crore imposed by the Ministry of Coal, the officials said.

The decision would revive the Arunachal Pradesh Mineral Development & Trading Corporation Limited (APMDTCL), a state government undertaking.

The Namchik-Namphuk coalfield was allocated to the APMDTCL on October 28, 2003 by the Coal Ministry.

Extraction was started there in March 2007 by the National Mining Company Ltd of Tinsukia in Assam on the basis of a memorandum of agreement (MoA) through an open tender for extraction of two lakh metric tonnes coal annually.

Though 133.62 hectares of area was permitted for the mining, extraction was done only in 39.04 hectares and a quantity of 10,73,00 MT in 62 months before the operations was suspended in 2012.

In another major development, the chief minister said the state has got forest clearance for the Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) for 13 oil wells, which was pending for the past 14 years, the officials said.

The state government would be able to earn revenue to the tune of Rs 15 crore annually out of the 13 oil wells, which will be operated by the Oil India Limited (OIL).

The meeting also discussed the issue of strengthening staff position in the geology and mining department, ways to curb illegal mining and increase revenue generation, the officials said.