Cement, Energy and Environment

The process change would mainly benefit power and coal mining projects that face delays over EC. According to an estimate, close to 30,000 MW of power capacity is stranded due to delays in getting the green nod . Environment minister Prakash Javadekar has said the effort of the government would be to give ECs within 60 days. In addition to this, the streamlining process for EC wou ld also look into issues such as requirement of repetitive studies on water supply, ash disposal and water table insisted upon by the EAC while granting terms of reference (ToR) for EC. The environment ministry is also likely to ease rules for expansion projects in mining operations. Power projects proposing expansion units within existing boundaries and those proposing 50% capaci ty expansion outside the boundary may be exempted from public hearing. In addition , grant of EC to thermal power projects may be delinked from FC stage-1 for linked coal blocks on the lines of UMPPs . Courtesy: The Financial Express, New Delhi, 16.08.2014 Pg. No. 12-13 COAL MINISTRY SUGGESTS CLUSTER APPROACH FOR GREEN NOD The Coal Min istry has pitched for adopting a cluster approach for envi ronment clearances to augment domest ic production. The stagnant coal production has become a cause of concern for the Ministry as well as the industries dependent on the fuel. Delayed environment and forest clearances have been cited as the prime reasons by the Ministry for the falling domestic output. In its presentat ion to be made before Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry has suggested identification of inviolate areas and eco– sensitive zones for future planning of coal mining. Besides environment and forest clearances , the Ministry has also blamed the slow land acquisition process as well as relief and rehabi li tat ion work due to limited alternative land avai labi lity for it. Law and order issues and pending court cases against captive coal blocks have a lso been cited as the reasons for domestic coal production slowing down . To overcome the constraints, the Ministry has recommended streamlining the procedures for environment and forest clearances. According to the Coal Ministry data, India . missed its target production for 2013-14 f iscal by nearly 40 million tonne. As against a target of 604.55 million tonnes for the 2013-14 fiscal, domestic coal miners could produce only 564.76 mill ion tonnes . Coal India itself missed production targets by nearly 20 million tonnes and produced 462.53 million tonnes as against a target of 482 million tonnes. Pending projects As per data from the Ministry of Environment and Forests' website, 39 coal mining projects are awaiting environment clearance while another 77 projects are awaiting forest clearance. The coal supply-demand gap may increase further in 2014-15. The Ministry projects a demand of 787.03 million tonne. To met this demand domestic coal production needs to increase by 39.3 per cent in the current fi scal, which would be a record growth . In 2013-14 production grew 1.5 per cent over the previous fiscal while in 2012-13 production grew 3. 3 per cent over the previous fiscal. The Geological Survey of India estimates India's coal reserves to be over 246 billion tonnes, leaving enough scope for ramping up coal production. Courtesy: Business Line, New Delhi, 17.06.2014 AIR POLLUTION COSTING ECONOMY Outdoor air pollution in urban areas by itself cla ims 1.09 lakh lives of adult and 7,51 3 lives of children. The World Bank study reveal that the annual cost of environmental degradat ion in India is about Rs. 3. 75 lakh crores, which is equivalent to 5. 7% of the country's GOP. The study has brought out how urban growth centres are choking and claims that outdoor and indoor a ir pollution have the maximum share of this annual burden on Ind ia's economy. According of the estimates of the bank, outdoor air pollution accounts for 29% of this, followed by indoor air pollution (23%), cropland degradation (19%), water supply and sanitation (14%), pasture (11%) and forest degradation (4%). 3 1