Coal India Limited (CIL) has taken a number of actions to promote cleaner coal technologies like use of surface miner and dispatch through merry-go-round/Conveyors etc. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
In view of major environmental concerns, especially the climate change, Shri Goyal said that for all the new and expansion projects, detailed project specific Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) is undertaken and appropriate remedial measures, as prescribed, are planned and implemented for mitigating the environmental impacts. The Minster further added that for addressing the environmental concerns, especially about climate change, CIL will continue to undertake appropriate adaptation and mitigation centric measures.
“As outlined in India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), CIL will continue its endeavor to reduce emission intensity through introduction of eco-friendly mining technologies and creating additional carbon sink through massive afforestation”, he added.
Shri Goyal also informed the house that CIL has planned to gradually increase its annual production of coal from 536.50 Million Tonnes in 2015-16 to One Billion Tonnes by the year 2019-20. The Minister further stated that so far, mine/projects have been identified to produce about 908 Mt and for balance to reach 1 Bt is underway. Roadmap prepared by CIL to substantially enhance production of coal by 2019-20 includes capacity addition from new projects, use of mass production technologies and identification of existing on-going projects with growth potential.