The newly-formed Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) is likely to approve automatic extension of environment clearances when it meets on Thursday, sources said. The move will not only do away with the tedious process of environment and forest clearance, but also free up over 65 million tonne (MT) additional coal annually, according to sources.
Last year, the environment ministry had made it mandatory for companies setting up projects to obtain forest clearance (FC) before applying for environment clearance (EC), where diversion of forest land is required. The guideline was later modified, allowing parallel processing for both EC and FC.
However, according to the coal ministry, even this will not help as the validity of EC is restricted to one year, while it takes three to five years to get FC. “Necessary changes in the procedure for allowing automatic extension of validity of EC need to be incorporated,” the ministry had told the Cabinet secretariat.
In a meeting on December 24, the secretariat asked the ministry to furnish details of issues impacting coal projects. The coal ministry provided the secretariat with a list of 19 projects where EC and FC were held up even after recommendations by the Environment Appraisal Committee (EAC) and the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC).
The coal ministry has also sought to expedite three mega rail link projects that would connect major coalfields in three states. The projects are critical for moving an additional 300 million tonnes of coal annually.
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If the tracks are not put in place within three years, Coal India is unlikely to achieve its target of 615 mt production by 2017, nor will there be any incremental coal production in the 12th Plan, the ministry said.
The rail lines include the 92-kilometre Tori-Shivpur-Kathotia rail link connecting the North Karanpura coal field in Jharkhand. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had earlier denied forest land diversion for a part of the Rs 2,345-crore project, forcing a change in alignment. The second link, the Rs 469-crore Jharsuguda-Barpali rail line connecting the IB Valley coalfield in Odisha, has been delayed because Indian railways failed to acquire land. The CCI will also discuss measures to fastrack the Rs 5,500-crore Bhupdeopur-Korba rail link connecting Mand-Raigarh coalfield in Chhattisgarh.
According to sources, the coal ministry will seek CCI’s approval for drilling with enhanced borehole density of 20 per square km for future exploration projects, against 2 per sq km currently, without the need to seek MoFE approval. The coal ministry is of the view that unless MoFE’s guidelines for borehole density are revised, the 12th Plan’s exploration programme will be severely affected. This includes the exploration of 42 blocks to be allocated through auctioning.
