Coal, Environment Ministries to soon agree on ‘go' areas for CIL

The differences between the Union Coal Ministry and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) over the classification of ‘go' and ‘no-go' areas for the country's largest coal miner, Coal India (CIL), may be resolved in the next few weeks, according to sources.The Ministries have initiated a joint exercise to identify areas for which the MoEF may consider diversion of forest land for coal mining purposes. Both the Ministries are scheduled to meet in the third week of August to take a final call.

It is understood that the Coal Ministry is pushing for reclassification of the forest areas into ‘go', ‘no-go' and ‘may go' areas. While the ‘no-go' areas will remain permanently free from coal mining activities; access to the ‘may-go' areas could be given after investigation.According to sources, the Coal Ministry has also stressed on a mandatory ‘fast track' environmental clearance (within 300 days as against the existing practice of taking 4-5 years for granting such clearances) for the ‘go' areas so that mining can start at the earliest.

The Ministry is of the view that a fast-track clearance would free a large chunk of the mineable coal reserves in the country for immediate commercial exploitation, to keep up with the increasing demand for coal from the power sector.Earlier in an initial assessment, the Coal Ministry identified that up to 40 per cent of the mineable reserves in CIL's nine major coalfields could not be exploited due to the existing restrictions imposed by the Environment Ministry.The impact of the existing restrictions on the country's growth aspirations had already attracted the attention of the Prime Minister.That the restrictions are now set to be relaxed was indicated by the CIL Chairman, Mr Partha S. Bhattacharyya.“You can expect a positive statement in a month or two,” he said here at a conference organised by CII-Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence.