Coal news and updates

Govt to formulate new policy for UCG

December 16: In a bid to renew its efforts to tap opportunities in underground coal gasification (UCG), the NDA government is mulling to formulate a new policy for the segment, according to a top official of CMPDI.

“The NDA government is planning to make a new policy for UCG. Once the changes are incorporated in the policy, accordingly we will modify the tender document,” the official said.

Earlier, CMPDI had prepared and floated a tender for two UCG blocks, i.e., Kaitha (Ramgarh coalfield) and Thesgora ‘C’ block (Pench Kanhan coalfield) under the command area of Central Coalfields (CCL) and Western Coalfields (WCL), respectively, but got only one response.

The official, however, said that a lot of research work was yet to be done to make the process safe and non-polluting.