Expediting long winding environmental clearances and refurbishing the railway network for faster carriage of coal are the two significant aspects that the Coal Ministry needs to urgently address, in order to facilitate Coal India ltd (CIl) achieve the ambitious target of taking its annual production rate to 30 per cent, from the current 9 per cent.
While the Railway Ministry needs to take back its encroached land to revamp its network, CIl, whose 241projects are awaiting forest and environmental clearances, needs to fast track them in order to improve its supply network to thermal plants.
At present, 48 environmental clearance proposals of CIl, having a combined capacity of about 109 million tonnes per annum, are awaiting clearances at different levels. In addition to this, 193 forestry proposals are awaiting clearances either at environment ministry or at the state levels.
The target which had been set by Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal soon after he took charge of the ministry, can be achieved only over a period of four to five years despite efforts being made to coordinate with the Railway Ministry to expand the existing rail network connecting coal mines across the country, sources privy to the development told The Pioneer.
Though a stiff target, they pointed out that over the past few months hectic parleys have been going on between the Coal Ministry and Railway Ministry. Coal Ministry has requested Rail Bhavan officials to consider doubling of lines on routes which connect major coal mines and also to refurbish old lines, which would help in faster supply of dry fuel to power plants in the long run.
However official sources observed that freeing several hectares of railway land from rampant encroachment is a major impediment towards expanding the railway network.
“Assurances have been given by the Railway Ministry regarding doubling of tracks and provision of greater number of rakes for carriage of larger volumes of coal, and work has also begun towards this, yet achieving such a (production) target will still take time as land availability is essential,” a senior ministry official explained.
While the Railway Ministry has to free its land from encroachment to augment its existing network, the long winding process of seeking environmental clearances for various CIl projects also needs to be put on fast track in order to achieve the 30 per cent target.
While in the past three months, meetings between Goyal and Environment & Forest Minister Prakash Javadekar have been held to expedite clearances for CIl’s projects, sources pointed out that it is not easy to fast track the process, considering the number of projects involved, sources said.
In the first six months of the current fiscal, CIl has produced 210.76 million tonnes of coal against a target of 220 million tonnes. This information was given by the company in a filing to the BSE.
Goyal had earlier asked CIl to ramp up production from its existing mines. The company, which accounts for 80 per cent of domestic coal production, missed its output target of 482 million tonnes for 2013-14, as it produced 462 million tonnes during the period.