Prospects of Coal Block Development to meet the target

1. Prospects of Coal Block Development to meet the target File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

2. PREAMBLE File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

3. Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act passed by the Parliament in 1973. • As per this Act, Coal Mining could be done only by: • a) Central Govt., or a company, or a Corporation owned, managed or controlled by Central Govt. • b) A person to whom a sub-lease has been granted by any such Govt., Company or Corporation. • In 1993 Act was amended and Coal Mining was opened to Companies engaged in : • a) Production of Iron and Steel • b) Generation of Power • c) Washing of Coal obtained from a mine or • d) Such other End-use as the Central Govt. may, by notification, specify File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

4. Based on Sl. No. ‘d’ above, following End-uses added for Captive Mining from time to time. • (i) Cement Manufacture • (ii) Surface Coal Gasification • (iii) Underground Coal Gasification • (iv) Coal Liquefaction (CTL) • Decision regarding Coal Washing being an approved End-use not implemented so far. • As per the revised policy adopted in Dec’2001, State Govts. & Companies/Undertakings owned by them also authorised to do Coal Mining. File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

5. CURRENT STATUS File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

6. Based on this policy dispensation, 216 Coal Blocks allotted to Public Sector and Private Sector companies and State Govt. Undertakings. • This includes following 7 Blocks which were subsequently de-allocated as given below: File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

7. File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

8. An other 17 Blocks listed below have been deallocated 3 in 2010 and 14 in 2011. File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

9. Out of these, two have been reallocated. • As on 31.3.2011 No. of Blocks allocated stands at 194. • Total Geological Reserves in these 194 Blocks- 49306.8 mill tons. • Sector-wise distribution of these Blocks between Public Sector & Private Sector as on 31.3.2011 given below: File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

10. Summary of Allocation of Coal Blocks till 31.3.2011 File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

11. Summary of Allocation of Coal Blocks till 31.3.2011 File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

12. Summary of Allocation of Coal Blocks till 31.3.2011 File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

13. Allocation of Mining Blocks started in 1993 and yearwise details of allotment is as under: File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

14. 103 Blocks ie more than 50% of total Blocks allocated as on 31.3.2011 allocated in 2006 and 2007. • Peak rated production capacity of mines to be opened in these Blocks assessed at approx. 700 mtpa • Following schedule prescribed by Ministry of Coal for commencement of production from the allocated Blocks Opencast Mines: • a) Blocks without Forest Cover- 36 months • b) Blocks with Forest Cover - 42 months File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

15. Underground Mines : a) Blocks without Forest Cover- 48 months b) Blocks with Forest Cover - 54 months • For Blocks not fully explored two years time allowed for completing Exploration • As per this schedule more than 70 Blocks should have become operational by now. File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

16. Production targets fixed for the Captive Blocks in the current 5 year plan (11th plan) is as under File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

17. Target achievement as high as 95% in 2007-2008 gone down gradually reaching about 47% and in 2010-2011. • This level in the current year likely to be only about 35% • Counting from 97-98 for which the figures are available the growth rate of production from captive mining Blocks -less than 2.5% File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

18. ROAD BLOCKS File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

19. Lack of Expertise- Procedural as well as Technical • Delay in Statutory Clearances particularly Forestry and Environmental • Land Acquisition • Lack of Infrastructural Facilities • Lack of Skilled Manpower • Lack of Financial Capability • Attitude of State Governments. File No.22/Conference Sept 14-15//Presentation 3 (Captive Coal Mining)

20. While all these factors have contributed to delay in commencement of operations main constraints have been Forestry clearance including that for Exploration, Land Acquisition and Lack of Infrastructure. • These could be attended to as follows: Clearances: Prospecting: • Prospecting license to be issued together with Allocation Order. • Forest department’s norm of one borehole per sq. km to be relaxed subject to the project proponent giving an undertaking that no trees will be cut for exploration. File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

21. Forestry Clearance: • Forest areas classified as ‘Go’ and ‘No-Go’ by MOEF without any legal mandate • Forestry clearance being denied on untenable grounds like: • Damage to forest cover because of mining will be long term. • This is not correct. • Since trees in the entire forest area are not cut at one go. This is done in stages • Within 3-5 years of commencement of operations Land Reclamation together with tree plantation starts and within 10-15 years, full grown replacement Forest is in place. • Statistics show that Coal Industry plants on an average 3 to 3.5 trees for every tree that is cut. File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

22. Bio diversity: • It is made out that Bio diversity gets destroyed • This is not correct since the forest area released for mining is only a part of the total forest and the loss of diversity in the area where tree-felling is done gets made up in the regenerated forest through areas over which tree felling has not been done. Sal Forest: • It is made out that Sal forest cannot be regenerated • This is not correct since successful Sal Plantation has been done in mined out areas at certain mines. File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

23. Human beings as much a part of Environment as Forest & Wild life. • Not desireable that one is sacrificed for other. • Poverty any day a bigger pollutant than temporary loss of Forest. • Poverty can be ameliorated only by economic Growth. • This growth can be achieved only by ensuring adequate energy availability. • Coal most important source of energy in our country. • Forestry clearance for coal mining should therefore become more of a norm than exception • More stringent conditions can be imposed about regeneration of forest and suitable monitoring mechanism could be set up to ensure compliance. • Coal Industry may be asked to pay for the monitoring mechanisam File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

24. Environmental Clearance: • Presently it is being granted mine-wise • Instead the maximum pollution load that a Coalfield can carry should be assessed and clearance should be given for entire coalfield • Meanwhile T.O. Rs could be standardised to save time • State Govts. to be pro-active in organising Public Hearing File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

25. 3. Land Acquisition: • Pressure on Land on account of population • Intense attachment to land • Land-cost constitutes very small part of Capital Investment • Problems in acquisition could be addressed to a large extent by adopting the following: • Land to be taken on Lease/Lease rent to be fixed at least twice the annual income from land. • The mining company should reclaim the mined out area totally including rehandling of external OB Dumps • Reclaimed land should be brought as close to the original as technically possible • Reclaimed land should be returned to the land owners • A lump-sum amount should be paid to the land owners for making the land fit for the usage to which they want to put the land to • Thus loss of land will be temporary and this will eliminate the sense of deprivation that the land owners feel arising out of permanent loss of land. File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

26. Other actions : • Provision of employment • Training facilities for making land losers employable • Financing for generating self-employment opportunities & creation of Infrastructural facilities for marketing of produce from such opportunities. File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

27. 4. Lack of Infrastructural Facilities: • Captive Coal Blocks generally located in isolated areas. • Even areas developed by Coal India were isolated. • Coal India could do it since production volume from a Coalfield was large. File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

28. Construction of all facilities individually by each Block Allottee will make the mine unviable. • All allottees in a particular coalfield should join hands and develop the facilities. • Being tried for Talcher Coalfield in Orissa and Hasdeo Arand Coalfield in Chhatisgarh. • Similar approach needed for other major coalfields like North Karanpura in Jharkhand, IB Valley in Orissa & Mand-Raigarh in Chhatisgarh.. File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

29. Steps for immediate improvement in production • Operating mines should be allowed to produce in excess of the requirement for the concerned End-use plants. • Excess coal to be handed over to Coal India at a price midway between the notified price and the ‘e’ auction realisation that Coal India will get by selling this coal. • Amendment of Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act • Block allottees should be mandated to extract the Block barrier jointly with the allottee of the adjacent Block File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

30. In large number of cases some sub optimal blocking has been done resulting in situations which militate against scientific mining. The Block allottees should be encouraged to operate such Blocks jointly as a single entity. File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks

31. THANKS File No.22/Prospects of Dev. of Captive Coal Blocks