Coal Secretary Mr. Alok Perti put the light on government’s on going and upcoming efforts to revive the drowning coal mine sector.As said by him, despite having globally fourth largest coal reserves in India, production of coal remained at a very low level due to the monolithic structure of the industry and government control.
The sector has been mired in controversies and has made headlines for missing targets.
The on going efforts of Coal Ministry
- The work had already begun to get the coal policies are in sync with the SC order on spectrum and natural resources.
- It has been decided that no coal block assigned to power projects including the ultra mega projects will come free.
- The power plant bidder will have to pay a reserve price for the coal to the state government.
- The reserve price will be determined through a formula that we are in the process of finalizing with the help of consultants. As far as captive coal blocks that are given to private end users like steel, or cement, will only be given on auction basis.
- As per the decision taken by the Ministry of Power, Coal blocks for power sector will be allocated as part of a tariff based bidding process in the future with the exception of allocation being made to government companies like NTPC who are setting up their own plants.
- Expression of interests have already been received from the consultants firms. The formula for arriving at the reserve price should not take more than two or three months. The entire exercise should be completed by September when we may initiate the process of auction.
Coal Production Issue
- There is a coal shortage in the country, but the entire blame cannot be put on CIL. For one, a large number of the projects are stuck for environment and forest clearances.
- The Prime Minister's Office had dealt with this issue and Coal Ministry have followed it up with the environment ministry. The idea is to first look at those projects which are expansion plans. They are likely to come on stream early.
More Literature on this topic:
- http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/indl-goods/svs/metals-mining/blame-shortfall-in-coal-production-to-delayed-environment-clearances-coal-secretary/articleshow/13007701.cms
- http://article.wn.com/view/2012/05/05/Blame_shortfall_in_coal_production_to_delayed_environment_cl/
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