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Badal Sanyal

KOLKATA, Oct. 4

THE management of Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL), a sick subsidiary of Coal India Ltd (CIL), fears that the company's new coal mining projects may suffer a major setback following certain problems related to land acquisition, rehabilitation of project-affected families (PAF) and law and order. In this regard the Jharkhand Government assistance has been solicited.

It is alleged that land acquisition proposals under the Land Acquisition Act are delayed at various levels in the State, causing time and cost overrun of many projects. Two proposals for Tarmi and Amlo opencast projects (OCPs) are reportedly pending at the State Government level for recommendation to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF), while forest clearance proposal for 14 priority projects and eight other projects are pending at different levels of the State forest department.

The application for forest land for five projects, namely North Urimari OCP, Kedla OCP, Pundi OCP and Damodar River Division project have not been processed for want of no-objection-certificate of "GMK" land recorded as "Jungle-Jhari", which has to be issued by the District Commissioners concerned.

It is stated by a CCL source that forest land for four projects had been released by the MoEF, but that the land had not been handed over to CCL fully because of illegal encroachment over either full or part of the land.

In the case of new mega projects, namely Magadh and Amrapali, the problem relating to rehabilitation of PAF needs to be tackled. In Magadh OCP, five villages fall in Lathehar and Chhatra districts comprising 1,600 families which have to be rehabilitated. Whereas in the case of Amprapali, five villages falling in the Chhatra district covering 500 families are to be rehabilitated. On the contrary, large ongoing projects/mines such as Parej East OCP and Rajarappa OCP have been affected due to the rehabilitation problem.

Incidentally, CCL was referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) under the provision of the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1967 following erosion of the net worth of the company in 2000-01. A revival plan was subsequently drawn up envisaging a turnaround by 2003-04 and a profit of about Rs 325 crore per annum by 2006-07.

The CCL source said that the company's overall performance had improved a lot during 2001-02 even with a partial implementation of the revival plan. The company's annual loss came down from Rs 466.04 crore in 2000-01 to Rs 94.07 crore. And as per the plan, the company would come into profit from 2003-04 and by the end of the Tenth Plan, its net worth would become positive.

Incidentally, the CIL management has set an ambitious production target of 38.5 million tonnes (mt) in 2006-07 as against the current level of production of 33.8 mt. The major increase in coal production has been planned in North Karanpur coalfields where the production is to increase from 15.69 mt in 2002-03 to 17.69 mt in 2006-07. The increase is to come from new projects and expansion projects such as Magadh OCP ( 2 mt) and Amrapali OCP (12 mt) and Ashoka OCP expansion ( 6.5 mt). Two super thermal power stations of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) have been planned at Tandwa and Barh linking Magadh and Amprapali OC mines.

The CCL source said that Jharkhand would stand to gain substantially following the company's increased coal production. The State, at present, earns on an average Rs 28 crore as royalty and taxes per month on coal dispatches. For every one million tonne increase in coal production/dispatches, the State Government will earn additional Rs 10 crore on account of royalty and taxes.

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