Green panel gives nod to MCL's coal washery project in Odisha

The Centre's green panel has recommended environment clearance to state-owned Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) to establish a 10 million tonnes per annum capacity coal washery in Talcher district in Odisha.
Coal India arm MCL has proposed setting up of 'Jagannath Coal Washery' with 10 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity in an area of 30 hectare at Hensmul village in Talcher district.
MCL's coal washery proposal was taken up for discussion in the recent meeting of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) set up under the Union Environment Ministry.
As per the rule, the ministry gives final green clearances to the projects based on the EAC recommendations.

"After the detailed discussion, the EAC has recommended environment clearance to the proposed washery project subject to compliance of some conditions," a source said.
Among conditions specified, MCL has been asked to set up the washery as per the project report submitted to the committee. It has been told to transport raw coal through pipe-belt conveyor, and clean coal and rejected ones by rail with wagon loading through silo, the source said.

The panel has asked MCL to utilize rejected coal in power generation through joint venture companies which have been set up with NTPC. The technology chosen should conform to 'Zero Liquid Discharge'.

The company has been asked to develop thick green belt of 30-45 metre width around the washery to mitigate the dust pollution. A three-tier avenue plantation should also be developed along vacant areas, storage yards, loading/transfer points, and also along internal main approach roads.
Coal washeries are beneficiation plant that separate mined coal from impurities such as sand and stones and in the process minimizing ash content in it.
MCL has plans to set up total five coal washeries in the state. It aims to contribute 250 million tonnes of coal to the one billion tonnes coal production target of Coal India by 2020.