New Delhi: Coal India projects worth at least Rs 400 crore, expected to add about 50 million tonnes in output, have been held up due to delays in environmental clearance and land acquisition, the government said Thursday.
The development comes at a time when the country is battling with less coal output, which has impacted power generation.
"A total of 20 coal projects costing Rs 20 crores and above could not be started due to constraints of land acquisition and environmental clearance in Coal India Limited/its subsidiary companies," Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal informed Lok Sabha in a written reply.
These projects, if implemented, could augment Coal India annual production by 52 million tonnes, Goyal said.
The projects pertain to various Coal India arms including CCL, WCL, SECL and ECL.
Eight of these stranded projects are in Chattisgarh while seven are in Maharashtra, he said.
Three Coal India projects awaiting regulatory clearances are in Jharkhand while one each are housed in West Bengal and Odisha.
CIL, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production, has seven coal producing subsidiaries - Eastern Coalfields, Bharat Coking Coal, Central Coalfields, South Eastern Coalfields, Western Coalfields, Northern Coalfields and Mahanadi Coalfields.
CIL had missed its output target of 482 MT for 2013-14, producing 462 MT during the period.
In 2012-13, the company produced 452.5 million tonnes of coal, short of the 464 MT target.
Coal India's production target for 2014-15 has been set at 507 MT.
The world's largest coal producer plans to take up 118 projects envisaging 354 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) output in three years.
