Odisha produced the second highest coal of over 154 million tonnes in the country during the financial year 2020-21, Union Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi told the Rajya Sabha.
As per a written statement made by Joshi, 154.150 MT of non-coking coal has been produced from Odisha during the last financial year and the State was in second position in non-coking coal production in theentire country. Chhattisgarh was in top position with production of 158.190 MT of non-coking coal in the year. The other States those are in the list include, Madhya Pradesh (132.350 MT), Jharkhand (74.909 MT), Telangana (52.603 MT), Maharashtra (47.435 MT), West Bengal (17.016 MT), Uttar Pradesh (17.016 MT), Assam (0.036 MT) and Jammu and Kashmir (0.012 MT).
To enhance the production in the country, the Ministry of Coal has launched commercial auction of the coal on revenue sharing mechanism from five coal bearing States (Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Chhattisgarh) on June 18, 2020 wherein 20 coal mines with aggregate peak capacity of 59 MTPA were successfully auctioned. Further, in the second tranche of auction on March 25, 2021, where 67coal mines/blocks were offered with aggregate peak capacity estimated at 150 MTPA.
Joshi said a dedicated Project Management Unit (PMU) has been engaged by the Ministry of Coal for handholding of coal block allottees for obtaining various approvals /clearances for early operationalisation
of coal mines allocated under CMSP Act, 2015. The Union Government has also launched a Single Window Clearance portal for the coal sector to speed up the operationalisation of coal mines. It is a unified platform that facilitates grant of clearances and approvals required for starting a coal mine in India, he further said.
Similarly, the Minister said, the MMDR Act has been amended in March 2021 which, inter alia, allows all captive mines to sell up to 50% of the minerals produced during the year after meeting the requirement of the attached plant.
The Coal India Ltd (CIL) has envisaged a coal production programme of one Billion Ton from CIL mines by the year 2023-24. This will help in reducing imports and will also protect the capital of the country, he said. To reduce import of coal, anInter–Ministerial Committee (IMC) has been constituted in the Ministry of Coal for the purpose of coal import substitution. Representatives from the Ministry of Power, Railways, Shipping, Commerce, Steel, MSME, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Coal companies and ports are members of the IMC.
This committee provides a platform for discussions on a larger forum with the administrative ministries so as to guide them to encourage the coal consumers of their respective sector to eliminate imports of coal. On the directions of the IMC, an import data system has been developed by the Ministry of Coal to enable the Ministry to track the imports of coal, he informed. Moreover, the Annual Contracted Quantity (ACQ) of power plants has been increased up to 100 per cent of the normative requirement. The increase in ACQ would ensure supply of more domestic coal to the power plants, Joshi said.
“With the concerted efforts of various stakeholders, the import of coal for blending purposes by the domestic coal-based power plants has reduced by about 56 per cent, from 23.8 MT during 2019-20 to 10.4 MT during 2020-21,” he added.
