Govt likely to cancel 166 coal exploration licences

The government could cancel 166 coal exploration licences if the allotees do not commence production from the concerned mines. “The coal ministry is not going to keep quite. If proper steps are not taken to develop the captive coal blocks, we will have to take hard steps like cancellation of the leases,” MoS for coal Santosh Bagrodia said. The government has allocated 180 licences for captive coal production to public and private companies, but the work has started only on 14 of them. Bagrodia also said that the coal ministry has cancelled licenses for giving long-term coal linkages to power generators of 22,000mw of capacity for 11th plan period as these too failed to explore coal either on their own and through joint venture with Coal India Ltd. “This decision, though, is yet to be notified but the Coal Ministry has decided to take stringent actions and cancel licenses to various allottees for coal exploration for their non-performance,” he added. The minister rejected the industry’s demand for giving coal explorers environmental, forests and land acquisition clearances on lines of ultra mega power plants. Power companies have been complaining of coal shortages to meet their production targets. Coal ministry has said public sector unit Coal India Ltd has fulfilled the supply commitment made to the power firms apart from few “season and transportation bound” disruptions. To bridge the supply-demand gap, which coal ministry said is also due to the sudden spurt in offtake by power companies, the government would import about 31 million tonne of the dry fuel. “Coal India will import 4 million tonne and, if needed, even more than that without any service charge,” Bagrodia said. In addition, the minister said Coal India is also looking to buy mining assets in the US, Australia and Mozambique to meet the growing coal demand in the domestic market.