Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal today said he would press for early resolution of issues hurting coal production to a minesterial panel to tide over the widening demand-supply gap.
Jaiswal's statement comes after the Cabinet's decision to set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) earlier in the day to sort out issues related to coal mining in 'no go' areas, classified by Environment Ministry. The Jairam Ramesh-led Ministry has already denied permission to mine from 203 such blocks.
"There is no reason why should we not get permission to mine in these blocks. I will press for expediting the issue by the GoM as it affects 660 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) coal. The country faced a shortfall of 83 MT coal this fiscal which is set to go up further to 200 MT by 2013-14," Jaiswal said.
India's coal production is projected at 630 MT in 2011-12 against a demand of 713 MT.
A concerned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is of the view that the issue is a sensitive one and needs to be resolved, he said.
"Prime Minister has said that this is sensitive and an important one, which needs to be resolved," Jaiswal said, adding for meeting country's coal requirement, there is a need to allow permission to mine in these areas.
Coal and Environment Ministries have locked horns over the issue after the latter last year classified 203 coal blocks under 'no go' area prohibiting mining there.
The MInister said that various companies have already committed Rs 35,000 crore for end-use projects in lieu of coal blocks allotment.
Several coal blocks in the "no go" areas had been allotted to firms like Hindustan Zinc, Ultra Tech, Essar etc.
Jaiswal said Coal Ministry has contended that mining should be allowed in 90 per cent of the 203 coal blocks and is ready to undertake massive afforestation there.
Not permitting coal mining in 203 blocks would affect about 1,30,000 MW potential power generation capacity per annum, he said adding that Ministry is serious for enviornment conservation and is not seeking permission for 10 per cent area of the blocks which fall under dense forest category.
Meanwhile, Jaiswal said that Coal India will look into the prospects of entering into a joint venture agreement with Sasol, the world's largest producer of Coal to Oil for producing fuel.
