At present there are 113 proposals that are awaiting
Stage-I clearance and 55 are awaiting Stage-II clearance in respect of the
project of Coal India Limited (CIL) from forestry angle. This will impact coal production to the
extent of 160 million tonnes. This information was given by the Minister of
State for Coal (Independent Charge) Shri Sriprakash Jaiswal, in a written
reply to a question the Lok Sabha
today.
The
Minister further said that Regular meetings are being held with concerned State
and Central authorities. This is a
continuous process. The Ministry of Coal has not declared any “Go and No-Go”
zones. However, an exercise has been taken up jointly by Ministry of Coal and
Ministry of Environment & Forests to superimpose maps of coal bearing areas
on maps of forest cover in case of nine coalfields with a view to identify
category “A” and category “B” forest areas for coal mining.
Following steps are being taken by
CIL to increase coal production:
i)
UNDERGROUND
·
Introduction of Mass Production and Long wall
technology.
·
High wall mining technology is being planned
in the mines where geo-mining conditions permit.
·
Manual loading is being phased out by
deployment of SDL/LHD and reorganization of transport system, wherever
feasible.
ii)
OPENCAST
·
High capacity equipment matching with bench
height and stripping ratio are being introduced. For dumpers, upgradation
from 35/50 T to 60 T to 100 T / 120 T and 150 T to 190/240 T are being
undertaken. Similar action has been
taken for standardization of other HEMM as well.
·
Thrust on automation and use of IT. Three
OITD systems are already in operation and 11 more mines are being equipped with
Operator Independent Truck Dispatch System (OITDS).
·
Maintenance and Repair Contract (MARC) with
Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) are being introduced.
·
Tendering for Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) has been done for systematized integration & optimization of
resources.
***
NCJ/SR