The government on Thursday said it will develop model terms of reference (TORs) for coal projects to bring down the time taken in assigning environmental clearances to such projects from 3-5 years. Coalmine developers use the TORs in assessing the impact of mining projects on environment, and standard TORs can enable them to do this assessment in advance.
Faster clearance to coal projects will be helpful in increasing the production of the fossil fuel, the chief raw material to generate thermal power. ?The country needs to increase coal production to one billion metric tons in the next seven years to feed new power plants,? Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forest Jairam Ramesh told reporters here. The country wants to double power capacity by adding 78,700 megawatts by March 2012.
Coal India Ltd?the chief coal producer in the country?has plans to raise its output to 520.5 million tons by 2011-2012 and to 664 by 2016-17, its chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya said. In 2008-09, 489.85 million tonnes were produced in the country, while 59 million tonnes were imported to meet the demand. India has planned coal production of 1.7-2 billion tonne by 2030.
As per the government plan, two part standard TORs will be developed. The first part will be common to all projects while the second will be based on project-specific details. The TORs will be prepared for both opencast mines and underground mines. The decision to prepare the model TORs was taken in Ramesh?s meeting with Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Coal Sriprakash Jaiswal on Wednesday.
Under the present arrangement, TORs are given to the developer after the receipt of a coalmining proposal. After receiving the TORs, the developer prepares the environment impact assessment (EIA) report, following which the concerned state conduct public hearing. After the hearing, the state submits the EIA report along with the minutes of the public hearing to ministry of environment and forest?s (MoEF) Environment Appraisal Committee (EAC), which awards the final clearance.
Of late, developers have complained of delays in receipt of TORs, which delays the whole process of environment clearance. At the end of last year, more than 50 projects, including those of NTPC, ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel, Central Coalfields and Singareni Collieries Company, were waiting for environmental and forestry clearances from states and Centre.
NTPC, which has been allotted five captive coal block, recently approached the MOEF to reduce the time consumed in giving the clearances. Its Pakri Barwadih coalmining project in Jharkhand, for which it submitted the application for forestry approval in June 2006, got delayed as it received the clearance a few days ago.
?Most of the delays in environmental clearances are not at the central level but at the state level. It takes anywhere between 3-5 years to get the clearance from state government. It should not take more than one year to give the environmental clearance. What additional data will you get after one year?,? Ramesh said. The minister, along with Jaiswal, will visit important coal bearing states, including Jharkhand and Orrisa, starting June 26 to talk to state governments on the issue.
In another significant decision, the government will give the environmental and forestry clearances based on the future peak production capacity of mines and not the present capacity. ?I want to get away from capacity clearances and move towards a situation where we will give clearance to coal clusters and coal fields, not just coal mines. This will take some time,? he added.
The MOEF has also decided not to give clearance to those projects that fall on dense or semi-dense forest area, seeking to lower the burden on government officials involved in assessing the projects. ?Only, those projects that are on degraded forest land will be given clearances. All India figures suggest that 55-60% land in India is in the degraded category,? Ramesh said.
The ministry has decided to give representation to the coal ministry by re-inducting an official of the latter in the EAC. Among other decisions, Coal India Ltd will employ a senior forest service officer and an environment expert to coordinate with different state forest departments and MOEF better.