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Ministry of Coal:180 Coal Projects Waiting Forestry Clearances

180 Coal Projects Waiting Forestry Clearances

  • At present, 180 forestry proposals of different subsidiary companies of Coal India Limited (CIL) involving an area of 28484.49 Ha forest land are awaiting clearances at various levels. Out of 180 proposals, 131 proposals are awaiting Stage I level approval and 49 proposals are awaiting approvals for Stage II. Further, 70 applications for environmental clearances are awaiting approvals at various levels.

  • For CIL the initially projected production in the terminal year i.e. 2011-12 of the XI Plan was 520 Mt. However, the production target was revised downwards to 486 Mt during the Mid-Term Review of XI Plan mainly due to considerable delay in obtaining forestry clearances, tenancy land acquisition and associated Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) issues as well as delay in obtaining environmental clearances in number of projects which were envisaged to contribute during the XI Plan period.

  • For the Annul Plan 2011-12, CIL’s production target was set at 447 Mt but because of further delay caused due to imposition of a moratorium on new & expansion projects in areas having Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index above 70 which included 7 coalfields of CIL.        

  • This information was given by the Minister of State of Coal, Shri Pratik Prakashbapu Patil in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

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