 "Meetings with MoEF every quarter for clearances to CIL projts")
To facilitate green clearances to 241 projects of CIL, the Coal Ministry has decided to hold meetings with environment ministry every quarter.
"The Coal Ministry will be holding review meetings every quarter with Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF)," an official said.
"MoEF is required to review the status of the proposal to provide environment clearances (EC) and forest clearances (FC) for expediting them," the official said adding that in the absence of clearances, projects will not progress further, leading to larger demand and supply gap of fossil fuel in the country.
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State-owned Coal India (CIL) had recently said that it is awaiting environment and forestry clearances with regard to its 241 projects.
"At present, 48 environmental clearance proposals, having a capacity of about 109 Mty (Million tonnes Per Year), are awaiting clearances at different levels," CIL had said.
"At present, 193 forestry proposals are awaiting clearances either at MoEF (Ministry of Environment and Forests) or at the state levels," the document added.
During the 11th Five Year Plan, it had said, Coal India had obtained forestry clearances for 56 proposals involving an area of 7095 Ha (hectares) from MoEF. The coal contribution from these projects during 2012-13 was 77.5 million tonnes (MT).
"Five forestry proposals covering an area of 538 Ha have also been cleared by MoEF during the first year of the 12th Five Year Plan," the company had said.
The contribution from these projects during 2012-13 year was 0.85 MT.
As many as 122 environmental clearance proposals for a capacity of 207 MTPA were approved by the MoEF during the 11th Five Year Plan.
"So far 30 environmental clearance proposals, for a capacity of 100 Mty, have also been approved by the MoEF during the first year of the XIIth Five Year Plan i.E. 2012-13," it had said.
CIL, which accounts for 81% of the country's coal production, missed its output target of 464 MT in the last fiscal. It had produced 452.2 MT during the period.
The demand and supply gap of coal which was 135 million tonnes during the last fiscal may touch 140 million tonnes in the current fiscal.