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Production halt at Parsa East & Kanta Basan block in Chhattisgarh has resulted in scarce coal supply in poll-bound Rajasthan, an official in the Coal Ministry said.
The Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan have been holding meetings over the past on the issue, the official said.
The Parsa East & Kanta Basan block is located in Chhattisgarh, where elections are due next month.
The 15 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) coal mine in Chhattisgarh is owned by Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RRVUNL).
"The Environment Ministry has given its go-ahead for non-forestry use of 1898.328 ha in February last year for phase II operations. Handover and tree felling in an area of 141 ha of forest land is required to continue the mining operations till FY'24," the official said.
Out of 141 hectares of forest land, tree felling has been completed on 43.63 ha and around 91.21 ha of Forest land is yet to be handed over by the Chhattisgarh government in order to continue coal production, the official added.
If tree felling is not done immediately, it may result in an estimated loss of around 9 million tonnes (MT) of coal production in FY'24.
"Repetitive requests to the government of Chhattisgarh from the government of Rajasthan and Centre have not yielded the desired support," the official said.
Coal production has stopped, hence it is getting difficult to maintain supply of coal to Rajasthan.
The Centre has allocated additional coal from state-owned Coal India as an extreme special measure. This coal has to be transported from Coal India arm Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) and other far-off locations resulting in higher cost to Rajasthan.
This route is congested therefore causing serious difficulties.
"It is necessary to hand over 91 ha of balance land and initiate tree cutting activity to ensure the continuity in coal production in FY 2023-24, and handover the remaining land as per the requirement of the project for upcoming years," the official said.
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