Coal news and updates

Drilling near-impossible unless govt speeds up clearance process: CIL

The environment ministry will take at least a century to give clearance to all 60 pending coal exploration blocks if it sticks to its existing rules and pace, Coal India, officials say.

At present, the ministry of environment & forest gives detailed drilling clearance for coal reserve exploration in forest areas on a case-to-case basis and each block requires around two years for the ministry's clearance to come through, said AK Debnath, CMD, Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Ltd (CMPDIL), a Coal India subsidiary that undertakes exploration.

"Clearances for all blocks will thus take at least a century," he said. Such clearances translate into taking up one block at a time and making presentation to the ministry. The ministry will then evaluate the presentation and decide.

The entire process takes about two years before it is cleared. Coal India officials fear that CMPDIL will not be able to successfully drill in forest areas unless the ministry changes its rules.

A Coal India director said CMPDIL has already been barred from drilling some 150,000 lakh metres in the last two years due to environment issues in forest areas. "This is despite the fact that we do not damage forests in areas where we are drilling.


MoEF insists on giving clearances for detailed drilling on a case-to-case basis," the person said. Earlier, there were only 20-23 blocks for which exploration applications were pending. Now this has increased to 60.

As per CMPDIL's Debnath, 15-20 boreholes per sq km are required for detailed drilling, but the ministry allows only two boreholes per sq km in forest areas.

Source: The Economic Times