Efforts to expedite clearance for coal projects in India

Wed, 07 Dec 2011

At present, 176 Coal projects are awaiting Environment & forestry clearances at different levels. Ministry of Coal has taken up the issue with coal producing States and MOEF for fast tracking the Environment & Forest clearances, land acquisition R& R issues. Further following steps have been taken by the coal companies to expedite the clearances:

1. Vigorous follow up action with land acquisition officials of State Government to expedite acquisition proceedings.

2. Regular meetings with State Authorities viz. Land Revenue Commissioner, LR Secretary are held to resolve the issues.

3. Forest Officials are contacted on regular basis at District & Tehsil level to fulfill the requirement and answer the queries.

4. Periodical contacts are done with the Regional Office of MOEF/ MOEF, New Delhi for expediting clearance of the environmental & forestry proposals.

5. Discussions are held with the land owners/ villagers for selection of rehabilitation site and also to persuade them to shift to the rehabilitation site.

Besides this in order to bridge the demand-supply gap CIL is contemplating to acquire coal assets abroad and import the produces from the acquired coal to India. This foreign venture is being pursued from Coal Videsh Division at CIL Kolkata and several initiatives have been taken which are as follows :

CIL emerged as the successful bidder in the global tender process run by Govt. of Mozambique and acquired prospecting license of two coal blocks in Mozambique, namely A1 and A2, covering an area of 22,400 hectares in Tete Province. The PL entitles CIL to explore and develop the coal blocks over a period of 5 years. A 100% wholly owned subsidiary of CIL namely, Coal India Africana Limitada, has been registered in Mozambique for investment in coal resources.

Coal India Ltd had floated a global Expression of Interest in July 2009 to select Strategic Partner(s) in preferred destination countries like Australia, USA, South Africa and Indonesia to acquire stakes in the existing or Greenfield coal resources under the following deal structures:

1. Equity investment by CIL with long-term off-take contract at a price less than prevailing import price.

2. Only long-term off-take contract on cost plus basis at a price less than prevailing import price, with financial assistance (if required) by way of loan from CIL for production augmentation.

3. Formation of JV for exploration, development and operation of coal assets in any of the destination countries.

Through all the above deal structures, CIL proposes to import coal with the dual objective of ensuring security of supply and insulation from the volatility of global prices. However, the process is still underway and CIL has not yet acquired any mines abroad. In addition to this, Government of India has approved formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle through Joint Venture between CIL/SAIL/RINL/NMDC and NTPC, which has been registered as International Coal Ventures Private Ltd on May 20th 2009. The purpose of ICVL is to invest in coal resources abroad to meet the coal demand of partner companies. The SPV has been approved to have an authorized capital of INR 10,000 Crores and an initial paid up capital of INR 3,500 crores. Initiatives have been taken to primarily acquire coking coal assets in Australia, Mozambique, USA etc.

Goa mining scam pegged at INR 1200 crore

Monday, 29 Aug 2011

ET reported that Goa assembly's Public Accounts Committee Saturday pegged the quantum of illegal mining in the state at INR 1,200 crore, a day after the Bombay High Court issued notice to 48 mining companies for excessive mining in their leases.

A PAC member said that "More than 6 million tonne of ore has already been illegally extracted. It is worth INR 1,200 crore adding the committee was perusing the documents related to the scam.”

The Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court, comprising Justices DG Karnik and FM Reis issued the notice on a public suit by green NGO Goa Foundation.

The NGO argued that the mining companies, which include the Dempo Mining Corporation, and local mining companies like Timblo Irmaos, VM Salgaoncar and Bros, Chowgule Co were extracting ore in violation of environment clearances limit granted to them" by the union ministry of environment and forest.

The court also issued notice to the MoEF.

The petitioner said that "The mining companies make self declarations of the amount of iron ore extracted and the mining department has no mechanism to verify the ore actually extracted.”

(Sourced from ET)

India may alter norms for carrying non washed coal

Sun,Aug07, 2011

BS reported that washing of coal within the state, which snowballed into a major issue with the Orissa government complaining about bearing the burden of pollution may deepen further as the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest is planning to reduce the distance of carrying the coal having more than 34% ash content to the power plant from 1000 kilometres to 500 kilometres from the pit-head.

MoEF earlier notification dated September 19 1997 had stipulated that power plants which are more than a thousand kilometres away from the pit head are required use coal having less than 34%t ash content.

Mr Tishyarakshit Chatterjee Secretary of MoEF said the Centre is mulling to reduce this distance from 1000 kilometres to 500 kilometres and to have coal washeries within 200 kilometres to 300 kilometres of the pit head so as to reduce the cost of transportation towards carrying ashes and minimize the fly ash pollution threat in the periphery of the plant site.

A number of new thermal plants are lined up for implementation by Independent Power Producers which will push the aggregate power generation in the state to about 45000 MW in the next 8 to 9 years. These plants are expected to generate 100 million tonnes of fly ash per annum.

Hence, such plans of MoEF on the reduction of distance for carrying the non-washed coal will compel the IPPs to set up washeries that will further precipitate the pollution problems in the state.

(Sourced from Business Standard)

CIL output growth seen almost nil this fiscal: official

March 06, 2011, 15:20 IST By PTI

New Delhi :Coal India's (CIL) production growth is likely to nosedive to less than 1% in the current financial year compared to the projected growth of about 7%, as a number of its projects have been hit by environmental concerns, a top Coal India official has said.

State-owned CIL has set a production target of about 460 million tonne for this fiscal.

"Due to 'no-go' classification by the Environment Ministry, several CIL projects are lying stranded. The production growth, as compared to the last fiscal is likely to be almost nil this fiscal," a Coal India official told PTI.

In the year 2010-11, CIL's coal output, which accounts for over 80% of the domestic production, is expected to be almost the same as 2009-10 fiscal years' 431.26 million tonne.

CIL's 2009-10 coal output was 7% more than the previous fiscal.

In 2008-09 CIL's production stood at 403 million tonne.

Talking about the decline in production, CIL's former Chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya, who retired on Feb 28, said: "Coal production has taken a dip due to non clearance of projects and no go classification, which has affected many a projects of the company."

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal last month had said that the growth rate has already declined to less than 2% on account of environmental concerns.

"We are trying our best that we restore it to 7% again in the next fiscal," he had said.

Ministry of Forest and Environment (MoEF) has put 203 coal blocks with a potential output of 660 million tonne per annum in nine coalfields under the 'no go' mining zone.

Besides, as many as 154 projects of CIL are stalled due to delay in environmental and forest clearances at the Centre and state level.

The government has already constituted a 12-member ministerial panel, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to address the issues hurting coal production. The Group of Ministers which has already met once is likely to meet again this month.

The Coal Ministry, meanwhile, has said that 23 CIL projects, falling under areas categorised as 'critically polluted' under Comprehensive Environment Pollution Index (CEPI) by the MoEF, were likely to get the green signal.

CEPI captures the various health dimensions of the environment and acts as a warning tool to facilitate early intervention.(sourced:Business standard)

Jairam Ramesh gives go-ahead to sixteen coal projects

NDTV Correspondent,
Updated: February 15, 2011 14:35 IST

New Delhi: Ahead of a meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the coal issue on Friday, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has agreed to clear sixteen coal projects that have been stuck for a year now.

Coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told NDTV that he had a fruitful meeting with Jairam Ramesh who has agreed to relax pollution norms slightly, thus allowing sixteen projects of the state-owned Coal India Limited to go ahead.

"My meeting with Jairam Ramesh was fruitful, he understood our problems. We are both doing our duties...a final meeting with the GoM is still pending."

The meeting between the two ministers was held on February 10.


The softening of stand over the coal projects preceded months of confrontation between the environment and the coal ministries with Jairam clearly demarcating go and no-go areas for coal projects.

This resulted in several projects being held up.

The face-off between the two ministries had reportedly led Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ask the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to reconsider the policy of 'no-go' mining areas in view of coal shortages that the power sector is facing.


Tags: coal mining, Coal ministry, Environment Ministry, Jairam Ramesh, Jairam Sriprakash Jaiswal, no-go areas, Sriprakash Jaiswal

POSCO war zone - Villagers apprehensive on MOEF decision

Monday, 31 Jan 2011

With the union ministry of Environment and Forests set to take a final decision on the proposed steel plant project of POSCO, Orissa villagers facing displacement have decided to intensify their agitation if the Ministry order went in favour of the company.

As per report, a majority of villagers in the three gram panchayats of Dhinkia, Gadakujang and Gobindpur in Jagatsinghpur district were apprehensive appeared clear on Saturday.
Mr Prashant Paikray spokesperson of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti the organisation which has been opposing establishment of the proposed steel plant of POSCO since 2005 said that “Going by the reports reaching us from New Delhi, we are apprehending that the order might go against us.”

According to Mr Paikray, the PPSS has decided to hold a public meeting in Dhinkia on February 1 to decide their future course of action in the light of the MoEF's decision that would be announced on Monday.
Mr Paikray added that “After the February 1 meeting, we will try to develop coordination between all people opposing the project and carry forward our agitation to demand withdrawal of the project from the State if the MoEF order supports the company.”

The land acquisition work for the proposed steel mill in Jagatsinghpur had been stopped by the Naveen Patnaik government on the orders of the MoEF, following a report of a panel set up by the centre indicating violations of the provisions of the Forest Rights Act. Subsequently, another central panel headed by the former Secretary of MoEF, Ms Meena Gupta had also submitted two separate reports raising environmental issues along with the alleged violation of the Forest Rights Act. (sourced:Hindu)