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The Coal Ministry has pitched for adopting a cluster approach for environment clearances to augment domestic production.
The stagnant coal production has become a cause of concern for the Ministry as well as the industries dependent on the fuel.
Delayed environment and forest clearances have been cited as the prime reasons by the Ministry for the falling domestic output.
In its presentation to be made before Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry has suggested identification of inviolate areas and eco-sensitive zones for future planning of coal mining.
Besides environment and forest clearances, the Ministry has also blamed the slow land acquisition process as well as relief and rehabilitation work due to limited alternative land availability for it.
Law and order issues and pending court cases against captive coal blocks have also been cited as the reasons for domestic coal production slowing down.
To overcome the constraints, the Ministry has recommended streamlining the procedures for environment and forest clearances.
According to the Coal Ministry data, India missed its target production for 2013-14 fiscal by nearly 40 million tonne. As against a target of 604.55 million tonnes for the 2013-14 fiscal, domestic coal miners could produce only 564.76 million tonnes.
Coal India itself missed production targets by nearly 20 million tonnes and produced 462.53 million tonnes as against a target of 482 million tonnes.
Pending projectsAs per data from the Ministry of Environment and Forests’ website, 39 coal mining projects are awaiting environment clearance while another 77 projects are awaiting forest clearance.
The coal supply-demand gap may increase further in 2014-15. The Ministry projects a demand of 787.03 million tonne.
To met this demand domestic coal production needs to increase by 39.3 per cent in the current fiscal, which would be a record growth.
In 2013-14 production grew 1.5 per cent over the previous fiscal while in 2012-13 production grew 3.3 per cent over the previous fiscal.
The Geological Survey of India estimates India’s coal reserves to be over 246 billion tonnes, leaving enough scope for ramping up coal production.
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