The Hindu Business Line : Coal Minister identifies priority areas for action

THE Minister of State for Coal and Mines, Mr Dasari Narayana Rao, has said that his priority would be expansion of existing projects, rapid grounding of new projects, adoption of new technologies, expediting the clearance of pending projects, and ensuring the safety of workers.

"My endeavour would be to remove the policy and procedural bottlenecks in the development and production of minerals to promote industrialisation, which would in turn speed up economic development," he told newspersons on Friday.

The Minister also said that he had held a review meeting with the Secretaries and senior officials of the Ministry and had identified the priority issues for immediate action. The charter of issues had been submitted to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.

Mr Rao wanted introduction of a single-window system for clearance of the projects proposed in the coal sector as delays were affecting coal production.

Despite having coal reserves of 245.9 billion tonnes, the country's annual production is less than the demand.

The annual production of coal is of the order of 3.5 billion tonnes while the annual demand is 3.7 billion tonnes.

Mr Rao said that Andhra Pradesh stood first in the country with a contribution of nine per cent of the total mineral production valued at Rs 62,000 crore a year.

Minerals worth Rs 5,600 crore are produced every year in the State. Of this, coal production accounts for Rs 3,600 crore, natural gas Rs 605 crore, petroleum crude Rs 167 crore, limestone Rs 220 crore, barytes Rs 32 crore and other minerals Rs 1,320 crore.

The State receives royalty of over Rs 130 crore every year from mineral production.

To further increase mineral production in the State, Mr Rao said that 38 reconnaissance permits and 11 prospecting licences had been issued for exploration of diamonds and precious minerals including gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, barytes, manganese tungsten and platinum.

Some 102 industrial units in the State use minerals as raw material, including 21 cement units, an equal number of ceramic units, four pig iron units, three sponge iron units and six fertiliser units.