Question : Commercial Coal Mining

Will the Minister of COAL be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government is planning to open up commercial coal mining to private companies and if so, the details and the objectives thereof;

(b) whether the Government has identified the mines it plans to auction and determined other terms such as eligibility criteria for companies to take part and formula for revenue sharing and if so, the details thereof along with the time by which the commercial coal mining is likely to be made operational;

(c) the likely production of coal by the Coal India Limited and private firms by the end of this decade; and

(d) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to double coal production so as to ensure adequate supply of coal to power units?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (I/C) FOR COAL, POWER, NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a) to (d) : A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
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Statement referred to in reply to parts (a) to (d) in respect of Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 21 for answer on 25.02.2016 asked by Shrimati Supriya Sule and Shri Dhananjay Mahadik regarding commercial coal mining.

(a) & (b): An enabling provisions has been made in the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 and Mines and Mineral (Development & Regulations) Act, 1957 for allocation of coal mines/blocks by way of auction and allotment inter alia for sale of coal especially to meet the requirement of medium, small and micro enterprises and give relief to small users. Whereas, the methodology for allotment of coal mines to Central/State Public Sector Undertakings for sale of coal has already been approved by the Government, the methodology for auction of coal mines for sale of coal is under deliberation.

(c) & (d): Production of coal by private entities by the end of this decade i.e. 2019-20 cannot be estimated as the same would depend on the number of allocated coal mines coming into production. The estimated production planned by Coal India Limited (excluding production from North Eastern Coalfields) during the year 2019-20 is 908.10 Million Tonnes (MT). Further, plans to augment production up to 1000 Million Tonnes are being developed.
Coal India Limited (CIL) has envisaged doubling of its coal production by 2019-20 for which following steps have been taken:

i. Mines / projects to produce about 908.10 Million Tonnes have already been identified and further plans to augment production up to 1000 Million Tonnes are being developed.

ii. An assessment of the need for up-gradation of technology presently under practice in CIL mines and scope for further modernization has been carried out.

iii. In order to maintain the planned growth in production and evacuation in future, CIL has undertaken three major Railway infrastructure projects to be executed by Indian Railways in growing coalfields of South Eastern Coalfields Limited, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, & Central Coalfields Limited.

iv. Exploration capacity is being increased through induction of modern equipment and outsourcing.
v. High capacity mines are being planned with deployment of high capacity/ high productivity equipment in Open Cast & Underground mines.

vi. Efforts are being made by all sub-subsidiaries of CIL for obtaining Environmental Clearance/Forest Clearances within the scheduled time frame so that projects could start production.

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