‘Undermined’ by red tape: 16 mt of power-grade coal

Bureaucratic red tape over clearance for less than half an acre of forest land has held up production of nearly 16 million tonnes of power grade coal from two opencast mines at Talcher in Orissa.

While production this fiscal at the two mines — Bharatpur and Jagannath — will be down to nearly 10 mt, Coal India expects them to go dry in 2013-14.

Fuelling over 3,000 MW of generation in the region, the mines are linked to a number of consumers including National Aluminium Company (NALCO).

Hurdles unlimited

According to sources in Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) — the Orissa-based mining subsidiary of Coal India Ltd — both the mines have exhausted the resources in their existing area of operation and require nearly 332 acres of additional forest land within the leasehold area to keep fuelling the power plants.

Accordingly, applications were submitted to the Orissa Government for stage-I clearance as early as in 2005.

However, after two years of due diligence, the application was rejected in 2009 as the State Government wanted MCL to comply with the formalities under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.

This was despite a committee set up by the district administration failing to trace any tribal in the region.

Once the FRA requirement was complied with, in 2011, the government demanded the differential global positioning survey (DGPS).

And, since there was no state agency doing this, MCL waited till the government formed one. In April 2012, the demand list was further extended to DGPS for the area under compensatory afforestation.

And, now, MCL has been asked to comply with the lengthy FRA formalities for the 0.4 acre of forest land — to be retained as a buffer zone — on the periphery of the mine.

“Even if we had got the due clearance at this juncture, we could have ensured adequate production for next fiscal. We will not mine coal on this small strip of land. We have no hassles in leaving out a few more acres to the satisfaction of forest authorities. But, unfortunately, the bureaucracy does not believe in such easy solutions,” an MCL official told Business Line .

Major impact

The company is now set to lose 16 mt of production from the mines the next fiscal, he said.

“It is an endless process. Every time we comply with one law, we are faced with another stumbling block. Surely, this is not congenial for growth of the coal production,” the source said.