Govt to set up renewable energy, CBM extraction projects on mined-out coal land.

The Coal Ministry has released policy guidelines for utilisation of more than 7,900 acres of mined out or de-coaled land for setting up thermal and renewable energy (RE) power plants, coal bed methane (CBM) extraction units, washeries, and coal to chemical plants, among other uses. These holdings are mined out or practically unsuitable for mining, and are prone to unauthorised encroachment which leads to government spending on security and maintenance, an avoidable expense.

On April 22, the Coal Ministry came out with policy guidelines for granting lease by land owning PSUs and coal PSUs to government and private sector entities. The Union Cabinet had already approved the proposal on April 13.

On April 16, the BusinessLine had reported that the government aims to develop coal and energy related infrastructure projects on more than 3,200 hectares of de-coaled land holdings, which were acquired under Coal Bearing Areas (Acquisition & Development) Act or the CBA Act.

Unlocking non-minable land for other purposes will also help coal mining PSUs in cutting down operational costs as it will be able to set up coal related infrastructure and other projects on its own land by adopting different business models in partnership with the private sector. It will make coal gasification projects viable as coal need not be transported to distant places.

HBL