Tunnelling via red tape may end for miners

NEW DELHI: Companies may get all necessary government approvals when they are allotted new coal blocks, thus saving them five years of red tape, a coal ministry official said. The move will benefit companies such as NTPC, Reliance Power, Tata Steel, ACC and Grasim, which are looking to develop captive coal mines.

���We are finalising the new guidelines in consultation with the ministry of railways and ministry of environment & forest,��� said the official, who asked not to be named. Faster development of mining operations is key to timely implementation of projects in steel, cement and power sectors.

The ministry is looking at ways to reduce the time taken in developing a captive coal block allotted to companies, mainly power utility firms, he said. It has already received suggestions from the Central Electricity Authority.

According to the draft guidelines, companies allotted captive coal blocks would also get an in-principle approval for prospecting (identifying the mineral potential of mining block) and mining. At present, the developer has to get an in-principle approval from the coal ministry for exploration, and later seek the government���s permission to start mining.

The Centre would also allow exploration without mandatory forest clearance for drilling over 15 holes per square kilometre. But this waiver would be given only when the developer gives an undertaking that no trees would be cut while exploration. The proposal also includes development of master rail network for moving coal from captive mines, besides the rail network being planned for transporting coal from the mines of Coal India, the official said. The changes are vital as it usually takes almost five years for coal production to start from an unexplored mine from the date of allocation. Of this, about three-and-a-half years are spent obtaining nods and the rest in carrying out environment impact studies, exploration and actual mining of coal.