Coal India’s mine expansion projects is facing environmental hurdles as the special committee of Indian Ministry for Forests, Environment and Climate Change has rejected the environmental application of CIL.
Earlier SECL, one of the subsidiaries of CIL, submitted an application to the Special Committee for project expansion of Kasmunda coal mine from 6 MnT pa productions to 60 MnT pa. The special committee of Indian Ministry for Forests has rejected the environmental application on account of the plan being against environmental regulation and its failure to maintain pollution under the existing mining operational conditions.
The Kasmunda coal block in Chhattisgarh was considered sensitive as it was located in an area affected by ultra-left-wing extremists and the region was heavily equipped by special paramilitary forces dedicated exclusively to fighting extremist violence. However, the Kasmunda mine was not the only one to hit an environmental roadblock.
Indian Coal Minister’s initial rounds of coal block auction (in Schedule II & III) have ended with auction of 28 blocks in different states. Out of the total, 12 blocks are yet to secure environmental approval from various federal and provincial authorities and rest were allocated to the new miners. The remaining 12 blocks were expected to be resolved over the next two months.
Of these 12, seven blocks were specifically reserved for thermal power companies, in which one block in Jharkhand was bagged by Essar Power.
All environment approval delays are beyond the control of miners who had bagged the assets in auction. The government would not execute the performance bank guarantees submitted for delays in operation of the assets.
– Sourced
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