Coal news and updates

The government has granted green clearance for expansion of state-owned Singareni Collieries Company Ltd's coal mining project in Telangana with certain conditions.

The clearance comes at a time when the government is targeting to double the coal output to 1.5 billion tonnes by 2020.

"The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has accorded environment clearance to the expansion of Jawahar Khani-5 opencast coal mine project from 2.0 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) to 2.50 MTPA in...district Khammam (Telangana) of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd...subject to the compliance of the terms and conditions," an official said.

The conditions are that the maximum production from mine at any given time shall not exceed the limit as prescribed in the environment clearance, efforts shall be made to explore the availability of mechanically covered trucks, all statutory permissions/MoU from state government shall be obtained for transportation of coal by road among others, he said.

Besides, the production shall be within the same mining lease area and the land after mining should be restored for the agriculture purpose.

The Environment Ministry was of the view that the CSR cost should be Rs 5 per tonne of coal produced, which should be adjusted as per the annual inflation, the official further said.

In February, SCCL had said it was planning to open 10 new projects in the beginning of financial year 2016-17.

The new mines proposed to be opened by SCCL are located in Bellampally, Koyagudem, Manuguru areas among others. The new mines together are expected to produce 130 lakh tonne per year, the company had said.

Source: TOI