Entry of big corporates changing face of coal mining, but delays persist

While delays such as land acquisition, mining lease and prospecting licenses, and in clearances for geological reports are cropping up, there is a much higher tracking of illegal coal mining

“The allottee reported that the District Collector (DC) has been transferred and this delayed the process. The new DC has assured that the PL-cum-ML formalities will be completed within three weeks”. 

“The Director (Tech)/NA informed that there has been no progress since the allocation of the block in year 2019. (Officers) noted the issue of delay in drilling/exploration and asked the Allottee to expedite the tendering work and communicate to O/o NA the way forward and strategy to run the coal block and it will be observed that what progress has taken place before the next review meeting”… (sic). 

“The allottee informed that their application for PL cum ML moved from the Department of Mines and Geology to the Secretary (Mines), Government of Jharkhand, and currently it has been pending with the state government for the past one and a half years”. 

“The Director (Mines and Geology) Government of Jharkhand informed that during the earlier meeting with the Chief Secretary and the allottees, several critical issues were discussed. One of the primary concerns raised was the need for enhanced coordination between the allottee companies and the district administration, especially when it comes to securing clearances for land. This coordination is essential to address the various challenges at the district level and ensure the smooth progress of land acquisition processes”. 

One could be forgiven for imagining these were scraps of notes from government meetings on coal issues, recalled from a previous era. But these are not - they are from meetings held this year by the union ministry of coal with allottees of captive and commercial mines. The coal ministry, to its credit, is hosting these meetings to ensure coal production begins quickly from the 131 mines won by companies, through auctions for them.

 

There are two crucial differences this time around from the unstructured approach to private coal mining that raged between 1993 to 2008. This time, it is the advent of corporate leaders to mine coal under their own banner which is making for a more wholesome change. The list includes names like NTPC, JSW, Adani, Hindalco and Jindal Steel and Power. The second reason is that the companies this time have earned the coal blocks after paying sizable premiums to the government in the auctions. The earlier period was entirely one of allotments that too without justification for myriad small companies, with no corporate reputation to preserve.

 

Now, with the presence of these corporate leaders, coal production has increased 29.79 percent year on year in FY25. It has risen to 190.5 million tonnes from 147.12 , which means private producers account for nearly 20 percent of the coal mined in the country. Of the 61 operational captive and commercial coal mines, 38 have been allocated to the power sector, 11 to the non-regulated sector, and 12 are designated for the sale of coal, a coal ministry data set shows.

 

“We have to reply to our Board about why we are mining? Any hint of malpractice in our neighbourhood will immediately make our Boards close the mines”, said a top level officer in one of the mining companies.

 

Delays, however, could be costly. Earlier this year, an NTPC officer Kumar Gaurav was killed in Jharkhand. Soon after, a Jharkhand police team shot dead a suspected criminal in an encounter, who was alleged to be the leader of the gang that killed the officer. NTPC has forayed into coal mining through its subsidiary, NTPC Mining. The company did not respond to queries from Business Standard on the topic.

Delays hold up mining

Land acquisition, delays in mining lease and prospecting licenses, and in clearances for geological reports are again flaring up as constraints in some of the coal belts as companies other than Coal India move into mining. Of the mines handed over to companies so far, 61 have come into production with 70 still in queue. Some of these delays go as far back as 2019.

 

Officials of the Centre and the states were unwilling to be quoted on record but acknowledged that delays in the process of clearances could be adding to the lure of illegal trade in coal. The delays are often reminiscent of the earlier problem era. For the miners, once they go past the state level clearances, the final document they need is the Geological Report which has to be cleared by the Coal India subsidiary, Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI). This company is due to be listed soon. Coal ministry data shows the state with the most number of pending clearances is Jharkhand.

A glimmer of hope

Other data, about the linkage of coal with crime, is more hopeful. A Coal Mine Surveillance & Management System (CMSMS) also developed by CMPDI tracks complaints of illegal coal mining. In place since 2022, the tracker along with a mobile app, Khannan Prahari has logged 907 complaints. Of these 781 complaints were credible or “verified”. The number of actual cases is much lower at 237. In other words, the number of cases related to illegal mining is starting to decline.

 

Some of the new companies that have been allotted mining leases were specifically called for a meeting with the ministry in April this year to address some of their concerns. “The Ministry sought constructive suggestions on how production levels could be further increased, with a focus on identifying best practices, addressing bottlenecks, and leveraging available resources efficiently,” read a press note issued after the meeting.

 

The Centre on its part has assured the corporates of help in getting the statutory clearances soon. The companies in turn have promised to integrate proactive planning, adoption of advanced technologies, and timely completion of statutory clearances to ensure early commencement of mining operations and offer a sustained growth in output.