New Delh: A total of 16 mining projects of Coal India have received green nod in the current fiscal, Parliament was informed Thursday.
The clearances come at a time when the government has set an ambitious one billion tonne production target for Coal India Ltd (CIL) in the next five years.
"During the year 2015-16 (as on 1.12.2015), 12 projects have been accorded environment clearance (EC) and four projects have been accorded Stage II forestry clearance (FC)", Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
Of the 12 projects granted environment clearance, five belong to Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL), two are under Eastern Coalfields and two others belong to South Eastern Coalfields (SECL), Goyal said.
The four projects given Stage-II forestry clearance include one each of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, SECL, Central Coalfields Ltd and WCL, the minister said.
In a separate reply to the House, the minister said the focus of the government is to increase coal production to the extent possible by facilitating EC and FC expeditiously, pursuing with the states for assistance in land acquisition and coordinated efforts with Railways for movement of coal.
"Further, structural factors such as problems in expanding the capacity arising from difficulties in land acquisition, R&R...Difficulties in obtaining EC, restrictions arising out of the imposition of Central Environment Pollution Index guidelines and non-availability of FC in time, have constrained the growth of domestic coal production", he said.
