Coal news and updates

A Prime Minister-monitored railway project linked to increasing India’s coal output by 100 million tonnes in two years is stuck indefinitely. The work on the project, a set of three railway links officially classified as “critical” in Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, has not started because the states have not handed over land even after receiving environmental clearance and despite readiness on part of Railway and Coal ministries to start the work.

Now, officials have told the PMO that the project will miss the crucial deadline of 2016-17 if the land is not made available immediately. As per the official timeline, meeting the deadline was subject to the availability of land between September and November, which is unlikely to happen. The lines are for Tori-Shivpur (44 km) and Shivpur-Kathautia (53 km) in North Karanpura, Jharkhand; Jharsuguda-Barpalli-Sardega line (53 km) in Orissa; and Bhupdevpuir-Korichapan-Dharamjaigarh (180 km) in Mand-Raigarh coalfield, Chhattisgarh.

The Cabinet Secretariat takes stock of the progress in this project many times in a week. The matter is being monitored by the PMO, and top officials from the Centre have had a round of meetings on this as well but to no avail since there is nothing they can do except request the states. Of the three states, it is Jharkhand where the problem seems to have hit a deadlock.

 

Central officials met Jharkhand Chief Secretary earlier this month — one of the many such meetings in the recent past to break the deadlock — but they were told that a large tract of land, around 200 acres pledged to the project, needs to be acquired as per the new Land Acquisition Act, sources said. Earlier, the state had also been citing the unavailability of land records for certain other portions of land. Jharkhand officials have told The Indian Express that the transfer process of the land that is in possession of private parties (rayati land) might take over a year’s time to complete. “Under the new Land Acquisition Act, we have to get a Social Impact Assessment study conducted on these lands. Then, there is the process of paying compensation. There could also be claims made under the FRA and adivasi lands involved. It will take not less than one year,” said J B Tubid, Principal Secretary of Revenue and Land Reforms, Jharkhand government. The government-controlled land, Tubid claimed, would be transferred in a fortnight. Of the over 950 acres of land identified in Jharkhand, 49 per cent had been handed over in the past. It is the remaining 51 per cent or 488 acres that is crucial to start the project. Around 40 per cent of the coal expected from these three lines is in Jharkhand. The state, however, blamed the Railways for the delay. “The delay happened because the Railways used the 1938 land survey as the basis for their first application, when they should have used the data from 2006. The application also came piecemeal,” he said.

 

 

Source: http://indianexpress.com/