With the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) allowing Coal India (CIL) to expand project area by as much as 50% without holding a public hearing, the miner may be able to produce an additional 40 million tonnes (mt) next year on this count alone, CIL chairman and managing director S Narsing Rao said. The easier guidelines would help increase production next year with a higher output possible from at least 25 mines, Rao told FE.
CIL fell short of its 464 mt production target in FY 13, with output coming in at 453 mt. The miner?s target for the current year is 482 mt, but output could be lower by about 5 mt. Rao said cyclone Phailan had affected production at the Mahanadi Coalfields and Central Coalfields. Moreover, the Talcher mines were shut for a day due to labour unrest.
The easier MoEF rules apply to a one-time capacity expansion and should not involve any further land acquisition. A ministry circular said that ?expansion proposals for existing coal mining projects having production capacity up to 8 mt per annum (mtpa), the limit of one-time capacity expansion may be considered as 50% or incremental production up to 1 mtpa, whichever is more in the existing mine lease area.? This expansion is ?exempted from public hearing?.
While the new guidelines should have allowed the miner to raise production in 182 of the 462 mines in operation, CIL officials point out that expansion is possible only within leasehold area. Moreover, reserves in some of these mines, they point out, are limited with output in some at just 1 mt or less. CIL currently has 12 operational mines producing between 4 and 8 mtpa and 170 operational mines producing up to 4 mtpa.
MoEF minister Veerappa Moily?s decision to ease the clearance process comes in the wake of the coal ministry pointing out that the December 2012 exemption norms ? allowing 25% additional production ? didn?t really help the miner since the increase in production was negligible.
