हिंदी
Ludhiana, 15 February 2025
The focus of the Government is on increasing the domestic production of coal and to eliminate non-essential import of coal in the country. The All-India domestic coal production in the year 2023-2024 was 997.826 MT in comparison to 893.191 MT in the year 2022-2023 with the growth of about 11.71 % and during the period April 2024 to Nov 2024 the overall imports have reduced by 5.35%.
This has been stated by Minister of Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy in an answer to questions on `Accountability and impact of delays in coal mining projects’ asked by MP (Rajya Sabha) from Ludhiana Sanjeev Arora in the Budget Session of Rajya Sabha.
The Minister also answered about that the delay in projects for Coal India Limited (CIL), Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) and captive/commercial mines. Regarding CIL, he said there were 39 and 40 projects running behind the schedule in FY 2022-23 and FY 2023- 24 respectively.
Regarding SCCL, the Minister mentioned that there were 2 projects each running behind the schedule in FY 2022-23 and FY 2023- 24. About Captive/Commercial mines, the Minister answered that there were 40 and 34 projects running behind the schedule in FY 2022-23 and FY 2023-24 respectively.
The Minister’s answer mentioned that major constraints faced by the coal companies for missing the production deadlines are as under: Issues relating to land acquisition and Rehabilitation & Resettlement (R & R); Delay in Forestry and Environmental Clearances; Evacuation & logistics constraints; Law & Order issues; and Adverse geo-mining conditions in some underground mines.
Further, the Minister answered that steps are adopted to address the challenges and expedite project implementation.
As far as allocation of coal mines by the Nominated Authority, Ministry of Coal, is concerned, show cause notices are being given to the allottees in event of delay in starting coal production as well as for not achieving the target production. The reply of the allottees, are being examined in the Ministry and wherever allottees are found to be responsible, they are being penalized in form of appropriation of Performance Bank Guarantee as per the provisions of Coal Mine Development and Production Agreement.
Periodic reviews are taken at the level of Ministry of Coal with coal companies, stakeholder Ministries and the State Governments to expedite issues relating to land acquisition, processing of proposals of Environment Clearance / Forest Clearance (EC/FC), resolution of R&R issues, etc.
