As a steady stream of industry experts forecast major shortfalls in the global supply of coal, the sector has been stoking its furnace lately, including country?s largest coal producer Coal India, aiming productions of 2 billion tonne by 2030.
However, as Coal India chairman PS Bhattacharyya points out there are potential downside risks to the sector?s performance in the form of procurement delays, environmental and social opposition.
Referring to a recent tender concluded by CIL, the chairman said it took them more the two years to finalise. ?The global tender floated took more then two years to conclude because of several complaints and litigations by companies who had not bagged the contract. We did not have the experience to deal with such problems, which eventually resulted in the delay to acquire the 240-tonne capacity dumpers.?
Now the company has incorporated the integrity pact by Transparency International and expects tendering operations to be smooth. ?We have taken cue from the tendering process of ONGC and our own subsidiaries and incorporated the integrity pact,? said Bhattacharyya.
Also, problems in the form of opposition against mining are active, vocal, articulate and well informed. On the other hand, much of the miner?s persuasion has not been sufficient to ensure even a modicum of efficacy or success of projects.
Reaching out to public and addressing their concerns have some utilitarian ?pay-offs?. Gone are the days when one could steam roll public opinion. In today?s world, reputation of a good corporate citizenship is a must to undertake any project without local resistance.
?Let us be honest. Till now, we have not addressed the environmental impact of mining and time has come to look at such problems seriously. We have to devise ways to enable transparent communication with all stakeholders,? said Bhattacharyya. On the potential social impact, the chairman said mining has always been inherently viewed as an activity, which uproots villages and the tribal people.
?These are serious matters. We have to ensue that resettlement is carried out properly and the resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) policy has to be in line with this,? he said.
CIL now hopes its new found strategy of reaching out to people and improving their reputation in the eyes of local population holds them in good stead as it in particular look to ramp up its underground mine production.
There has been a persistent decline in underground coal production continuing for decades. ?We will have to get much more production from underground mining. From the 435 mt of production now, we have to scale it to 1,600-1,700 mt in the near future,? said Bhattacharyya.
He added that the country needs larger mines of about 10 mt and many such mines are planned, including the Mahanadi coalfields.