Nearly 69.635 million tonnes of Coal India Ltd's output is stuck due to pending forestry and environmental clearances.
“A total of 50 cases of stage-II clearances are pending across six subsidiaries of Coal India. Out of these, 31 cases are pending with different State Governments and another 19 cases are stuck at Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF),” said a Coal Ministry official.
Projects getting delayed due to forest and environmental clearances were discussed at a high-level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, recently.
“The Coal Minister, Mr Sriprakash Jaiswal, has asked the Coal Secretary, Mr S.K. Srivastava, to take up each case with the States concerned and the Environment Ministry to hasten the pending clearances,” the official added.
Out of the pending approvals, the worst hit is South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) whose 30 forestry approvals are stuck. Of these, 18 are with State Governments and 12 are with the Environment Ministry, resulting in 46.26 million tonnes of coal not being mined.
Only two out of eight subsidiaries of Coal India – Northern Coalfields Ltd and North Eastern Coalfields – are left with no pending forestry and environmental approvals.
In the stage-I of forestry clearance, an in-principle agreement is signed between the Government and the miner for allotment of the mining area. Thereafter, in stage-II the land is formally handed over to the miner for exploitation after the company deposits required fees and completes other formalities such as rehabilitation of households and plantation of equal number of tress displaced, among others.
Coal India targets to produce 464.10 million tonnes of coal in 2012-13. Last fiscal, it produced 436 million tonnes.