Coal news and updates

After a tumultuous year, the government’s decision to go ahead with the auction of 101 coal blocks in line with the directions from the Supreme Court and keeping alive the option of opening up the sector to commercial coal mining is a key step towards bringing order to the country’s fuel-starved power industry.

This, alongside reforms in the loss-laden electricity distribution sector, holds promise for the future. An amendment related to that was tabled in Parliament on December 19, which aims to promote competition and improve efficiency in operations and quality of power supply.

In September, the Supreme Court had cancelled the allocation of 214 coal mines allocated from 1993 to 2008, terming the whole process illegal. The court nullified 47 producing or soon-to-be-producing mines along with 167 other mines in the wake of the 2012 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, where it pointed to alleged irregularities in handing out 214 captive coal blocks to various public and private companies.

Subsequently, on September 25, the apex court cancelled allocation of 204 blocks, paving way for the government to auction 101 of these mines to power, steel and cement producers by March 2015.

Three months after it tok office, the NDA government promulgated the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance, 2014 to ensure that these blocks could be auctioned — opening up the sector to commercial mining.

Former coal secretary S K Srivastava said auctioning coal blocks would help ease uncertainty among the thermal power plants. “The government’s road map would ensure more coal output and meet the needs of both existing and upcoming power plants,” he said.

Coal India’s ex-chairman and member of the government’s Advisory Group on power, coal and renewable energy Partha S Bhattacharyya said “By fast-tracking its moves on bidding out blocks, the government is keen to avert any fuel crisis of the power plants, which is commendable.”

To pacify its trade unions, which have been on a warpath against the alleged privatisation of coal mining operations, state-run Coal India has indicated its willingness to go for a ‘conciliation’ with them.

The mining giant, which has been headless for nearly six months has got a full-time chief in Sutirtha Bhattacharya, currently CMD Singareni Collieries for the top job.

The power ministry is also working out the broad contours of the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana announced in the Budget. The scheme envisaged feeder separation, strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution network. This includes metering at all levels in rural areas, which is aimed at eventually offering round the clock power to rural households and adequate power to agricultural consumers.

Against a target of generating an additional 88,537 MW from conventional sources during the 12th Plan, the country has already achieved additional output of 49,390.1 MW, which is 55.8 per cent up to November 30. During the period from April to October 2014, there has been a growth of 15.4 per cent in coal-fired power generation over the corresponding period last year.

 

 

Source: http://indianexpress.com/