A Central team under the leadership of Secretary, Union Ministry of Coal, Anil Swarup, reviewed 15 projects relating to the Mahanadi Coalfields limited (MCl) at a meeting at the State Secretariat here held under chairmanship of Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati on Monday.
Swarup made particular mention of the Jharsuguda-Barapali Railway Project, which is very critical from the viewpoint of coal transport, and said the progress in this project is quite rapid and it is expected to be completed by 2017.
He said the Coal Ministry has set a target of increasing coal production to 1 billion tonnes by 2019 in which Odisha has a very important place. Chief Secretary Pati directed the concerned departments to complete the assigned tasks relating to development of coal blocks within the timeline set against each project. He advised the MCl authorities to prepare a comprehensive exit plan for exhausted coalmines involving the State Government so that the area can be rehabilitated appropriately for creation of livelihood options and conservation of environment.
The Revenue Divisional Commissioner, Sambalpur was advised to monitor the implementation of the exit plans of exhausted and abandoned mines. The meeting reviewed the projects like Kaniha Opencast Coalmining Project, Ananta Opencast Expansion project, lingaraj Opencast project, Natraj Underground Mines, Gopal Prasad Opencast project, Talabira Opencast project, Kulda Opencast project, Hingula Opencast project phase- III, Bhubaneswari Opencast project, Balaram Opencast extension, Bharatpur Opencast expansion Phase-II & III, Sairamam Opencast project and lajkura Opencast project.
The issues relating to exploration proposal of CMPDIl coal blocks in Odisha were also discussed. There are near about 13 CMPDIl coal blocks in Angul, Jharsuguda and Sundargarh districts. The total forest area to be explored in these blocks is around 43 sqkm. The issues relating to forest diversion, construction of rehabilitation colony, laying of infrastructure in rehabilitation area, payment of compensation, tree felling, shifting of electricity lines, required fresh land acquisition and shifting of people to transit camp were discussed and resolved.Top State Government officials and MCl CMD AN Sahay participated in the deliberations.