Authorities in Odisha halted operations at six mines of Coal
India after its environmental clearances expired, a senior government official
said on Sunday.
Any production disruption at state-run Coal India, which has
repeatedly fallen short of supply targets, would mean higher dependence on
imports in order to meet the domestic demand.
Coal accounts for 66% of India's thermal power generation,
the cheapest source of electricity in the country, which sits on the world's
fifth-largest coal reserves.
Operations were halted on Saturday at Coal India's Lajkura
open caste mine and the Orient group of mines at Ib-valley Coal fields in
Jharsuguda district, that belong to Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), an unit of
Coal India.
“They do not have the forest clearances. The mines will
remain shut until they get the approval,” Odisha's director of mines
Deepak Kumar Mohanty told Reuters.
State authorities asked the unit to halt operations earlier
this year but the mines were given a temporary reprieve by the Supreme Court. The
concession period has expired and the company has been told to shut the
operations, he added.
Whereas, according to A.K. Singh, technical and project
director at MCL “We have already submitted the application and completed
all the formalities”.
Source: Reuters
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