The Coal Ministry has approached the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh headed Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) to speed up pending environment and forest clearances.
These pending nods are holding back investments of at least Rs 1,350 crore and 36 million tonnes of coal output.
The Ministry also wants to push three rail links in Eastern India to evacuate coal. On February 7, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved one of these lines between Gevra Road and Pendra Road in Chhattisgarh.
Coal Ministry Sriprakash Jaiswal has sent the pending lists to CCI on January 31, a senior Government official told
No timeline
The CCI Secretariat has not indicated any date yet for taking up these issues.
There are indications that proposals from Coal and Power Ministries are likely to be considered in the next meeting.
Till now, the Committee has met once after it was constituted to expedite decisions on approvals or clearances for implementation of projects.
The nodal Ministry has listed 12 projects that are pending with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).
Out of this, eight projects are stuck for environment clearance. These areas have estimated reserves of 14.42 million tonnes and would attract more than Rs 770 crore.
Another project with 0.24 million tonnes and Rs 18 crore investment is waiting for stage-II forest clearance.
Three other projects, with reserves put at 22.3-mt million tonnes and with Rs 560-crore investment, are awaiting stage 1 of the forest clearance.
Output projection
Interestingly, these issues were discussed several times in meetings chaired by Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Pulok Chatterjee. However, the public sector miner Coal India has not received approvals.
Earlier, the Prime Minister’s Office has directed the Railways to execute the three railway tracks proposed by Coal India to evacuate coal within three years of the necessary clearances being obtained.
Coal India proposes to extract 615 million tonnes of coal by the terminal year of the 12th Plan, up from 436 million tonnes this year.