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• The Ministry of Coal is focusing on development of Clean Coal Technologies in coal mining, said Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Tuesday.He said the efforts to ensure consistency in quality of coal supplies have helped in augmenting washed coal production for power generation. Areas like Underground Coal Gasification, Coal to Liquid etc. are also being promoted.The Minister was speaking at the valedictory session of the 3rd Annual International Summit “Coal Asia 2012”.

Full text of the Minister’s address is as follows:

• “We are aware that how critical is the role of energy in economic development of a nation and coal is the main stay of India’s Energy and our dependence on the same is likely to continue for quite some time in to the future. Economic development is a must for overcoming poverty and improving life styles. Supplying quality energy at affordable price is a big challenge we are facing today.

• The gap in demand and domestic supply of coal has increased from about 50 million tonnes in 2007-08 to 83 million tonnes in 2010-11. Gap in the current year was envisaged to be 142 million tonnes. After taking in to account the additional coal stock liquidation from CIL for supply to power sector the gap was envisaged to reduce to 114 million tones. The projected coal demand in the terminal year 2016-17 of the XII Five Year Plan is about 980 million tonnes and the envisaged production to meet the projected demand is 795 million tonnes leaving a gap of 185 million tonnes. This demand includes 682 mt for power utilities.

• Ideally, the coal sector should have been opened up at the time of opening the economy in the early 1990s, along with the power sector. Unfortunately, our efforts to achieve this did not fructify. Coal India Ltd. has its own limitations in augmenting production and satisfying the consumers as per the projected demand. Even the policy of captive mining has not helped the sector to the desired extent. Only 29 blocks have entered in to coal production out of the 195 blocks allotted to various public and private companies. The production capacity of 126 blocks whose mining plans were approved earlier was more than 400 million tonnes and the actual contribution is merely about 8% only. Both public and private companies have been suffering due to delays in obtaining environmental and forestry clearances in addition to the problems in land acquisition & related R&R, law & order and coal evacuation etc.

• Friends, cooperation of coal bearing states in organising Public hearings for coal projects in a time bound manner is critical to avoid delays in obtaining EC. Cooperation of coal producing states in addressing delays in processing forest land diversion proposals for Stage-I and Stage-II approvals, conducting Gram Sabha meetings for obtaining ‘NOC’ under FRA and land acquisition and R&R issues and law and order problems is equally important.

• Cooperation of the Ministry of Railways in early implementation of identified rail infrastructure projects in potential coalfields for coal evacuation including additional rolling stock is a critical area in enhancing domestic production. In a number of cases coal companies are willing to fund the cost of the projects as there is no dearth of resources. Further, government is extending support in construction of road infrastructure in coal fields for improving connectivity and coal evacuation. However all these infrastructure development is dependent on timely acquisition of land.

• Strengthening the port infrastructure in line with the envisaged large scale imports is another area which needs to be addressed in connection with handling of imports.Ministry of Coal is focusing on development of Clean Coal Technologies related to coal mining. Our efforts to ensure consistency in quality of coal supplies have helped in augmenting washed coal production for power generation. Areas like Underground Coal Gasification, Coal To Liquid etc. are also being promoted.

• Energy security warrants acquisition of coal assets abroad. Efforts made in this direction have yielded some results by CIL and some private companies. We need to be more aggressive in our approach. Recent proposal of the government in creating sovereign wealth fund in this regard is a step forward.We are on the threshold of Twelfth Five year Plan where the rise in production is expected to come from the spillover projects of the XIth Plan and the new ones to be taken up in the XII Plan. Unless we facilitate the new production through proactive measures, the gap in demand and supply from domestic sources would exceed 200 million tonnes in the XIIth Plan period, with the Power sector being the most adversely affected. Early solutions need to be found for various problems facing the coal sector so that the economy can go ahead with the planned growth rate and the coal sector is enabled to play its rightful role in fuelling this growth.

• Inclusive growth and equity are the basic principles of development and our efforts should culminate in this direction in building the nation. I wish all success to this Summit and hope that the deliberations in these two days would result in practical solutions to the issues coming in the way of enhancing domestic production.”

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