Mini Ratna Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI) rued lack of forest clearance in as many as 10 projects in Jharkhand besides, other law and order related issues in the State that is supposed to be creating negative impact on the performance of the Coal India limited (CIl) subsidiary.
The company is facing hurdle in around 70 projects across the country that is suffering because of forest clearance after the provision of obtaining clearance came into effect. Besides forest clearance, the only institution of Government of India for the mines’ planning and design has also been at the receiving end due to poor law and order situations in certain parts of the State. lack of clearance and allied issues resulted in underachievement in the drilling target of the company however year-on-year performance of drilling exercise saw a jump in 2014-15 compared to previous financial year.
“We encountered some problems because of poor law and order conditions and pending forest clearance. It has happened that at some of the places our equipment were set on fire and officials were beaten up by people,” said Chairman & Managing Director, AK Debnath.
Nonetheless, the Mini Ratna Company boasted of a good performance across all the components where it has been involved in 2014-15. The company achieved an all-time high drilling of 8.28-lakh meter (provisional) during 2014-15, prepared 16 geological reports confirming 3.6 Billion Tonnes of coal resources besides, 3.1 billion tonnes of additional coal resources under ‘Indicated and Inferred category’, prepared Mines Dossiers and carried out other activities for the auction of 110 coal blocks across country, commissioning largest solar power plant (200kW) in Ranchi, performed upto the mark in offering consultancy services and obtained ISO 27001 certification for successfully implementing Information Security Management System at its headquarters.
Interestingly, the company is all set to put Jharkhand high on the map of non-conventional energy producing states in the country and is awaiting government’s nod to begin commercial utilization of Coal Mine Methane in CIl command areas. Notably, the energy thus generated is significant for reducing dependence on sources of energy like petroleum. The company is likely to begin gas production in seven to eight months as it awaits nod from the central government, said a source.
CMPDI officials also claimed that the company is pursuing activities for CBM development in two blocks viz Jharia and Raniganj North which has been allotted to the consortium of ONGC-CIl. A state of the art laboratory for CBM is already functioning at the CMPDI. The CIl’s unit claimed to contribute significantly for the betterment of the society through Corporate Social Responsibility.