Coal news and updates

MCL gets Green nod for Bhubaneswari project expansion

March 18: Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL), recently received environmental clearance (EC) from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for mining expansion of its Bhubaneswari opencast project to a peak 25 million tons per annum (mtpa) from the current capacity of 20 mtpa, according to information available with ICMW.

The clearance was given by the MoEF for expansion of the Bhubaneswari capacity by 25% in the mining lease area of 658.724 hectares.

While providing the clearance, the ministry said, of the total forest diversion proposal of 132.904 hectares, Stage I forest clearance was granted for 112.521 hectares of forest land. The balance 20.383 hectares of forest land could not be diverted as, according to an instruction form the ministry, MCL can approach for the clearance of that forest land only after 25 years.

Earlier, in November 2012, EC has been granted permission to expand capacity of the mine to 20 mtpa and MoEF expects the coal mine to achieve its peak rated capacity of 20 mtpa by the end of 2014 since there is further scope for additional production from this mine. The EC has been sought for 25 mtpa.

The ministry, however, specified that the additional 5 mtpa of coal production in Bhubaneswari will be transported to the power consumers only through rail.

The total geological reserves in the coal block are at 741.09 million tons (mt) while both mineable and extractable reserves are at 374.12 mt.