GoM on coal to discuss the issues affecting coal production

08 Jun 2011 Evaluate
The third meeting of Group of ministers (GoM) on Coal is expected to meet on 9 June, to discuss the issues affecting the production of coal in the country. The GoM was originally schedule to meet on 16 June but this rescheduling has been done because Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal is going on 10 day visit to three European nations-the Czech Republic, Belarus and Poland on 13 June, to seek technology for underground mining   

The GoM was formed in February to address the problems and resolve the issues like environmental norms affecting projects, mainly in the coal sector. Since its formation the GoM had met twice but failed to reach at any agreement.

In 2009, the Ministry of Environment And Forest had identified 203 coal blocks as ‘No Go’ mining zones and the Coal ministry has been demanding permission to mine at least 90% of these 203 coal blacks to reduce the deficit. The winding gap between demand and supply is hurting the power sector in India. The gap between demand and supply of coal is expected to be around 137 million tons in 2011-12 and is expected to reach 200 million Tonnes by 2016-17. According to the estimates of Coal Ministry, the total production from these ‘No Go’ 203 coal blocks can generate around 1.3 lakh MW of power per annum.

However in the last meeting, ministry of environment had proposed that it was ready to think an approach on “Go/No Go” that may free 71% of the areas in 203 coal blocks. Originally, the Environment ministry had proposed to free only 53% of the total coal blocks. As per the ‘No Go’ policy, the areas with over 30% gross forest cover are not allowed for coal mining. Likewise, areas that are 10% or more in weighted forest cover are out of bounds for coal mining.


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