Minister Pralhad Joshi: State-Owned Coal Firms Taking Various Measures To Make Mining Sustainable

Coal and mines minister Pralhad Joshi said state-owned coal companies are taking various initiatives to reclaim abandoned mines including planting saplings and development of eco-parks.

In an interview with PTI, the minister said, “Other initiatives of the ministry include the adoption of modern technologies such as coal gasification, the installation of renewable energy projects, water bodies conservation, and so on”.

Ahead of World Environment Day on June 5, the minister stated, “Our Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) has set a vision to make India net zero by 2070. In line with his vision, our PSUs are taking various efforts to make coal mining a sustainable exercise. We are doing our bit for the climate change issue. They are spending thousands of crores to meet this goal”.

Coal India Ltd (CIL) together with its eight subsidiary companies and NLC India Ltd, is administered by the coal minister.

Joshi, who is also the minister for parliamentary affairs, went on to say that “from 2014-15 to 2022-23, we increased the green cover over 16,262 hectares of land by planting approximately 37.03 million saplings”.

The public sector has devised a strategy to build a green cover area of 2,500 hectares (ha) by planting 50 lakh saplings in the current fiscal 2023-24, bringing the total number of trees to more than 42 million.

He also stated that around 30 eco-parks have been developed on barren lands near mineral-free mines across the country and another 30 new eco-parks will be developed in the next 3-4 years in the coal-producing states such as West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha at cost of around Rs 200 crore.

According to Joshi, the government last year that Rs 6,000 crore will be set aside for the implementation of coal gasification technology, which emits significantly less pollution.

Major components of Coal gasification strategies include making coal available for coal gasification projects, identifying suitable coal gasification technologies, and carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS).

“In order to ensure availability of coal to these projects, the coal ministry has also issued directions to CIL & SCCL to create a separate auction window to ensure source-specific long-term coal linkage for coal gasification projects”, he explained.

In addition to using mine water pumped out of their mines for their own use, state-owned coal firms supply more than 3,700 lakh litres (LKL) of treated mine water for community use each year, benefiting over 17.7 lakh people in 981 villages across nine states. The water is also utilized to irrigate crops.

Coal firms are pursuing rooftop solar and ground-mounted solar installations to promote renewable energy, particularly in reclaimed mining regions.

As of March 31, 2023, coal/lignite public sector plants had installed approximately 1,605 MW of solar capacity and 51 MW of windmills. The goal is to install 5,560 MW of renewable capacity by fiscal year 26.

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