New Delhi: In a written reply, Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi on Monday claimed that Coal India Limited (CIL) is adopting Mass Production Technologies (MPT) in its Underground (UG) mines, mainly Continuous Miners (CMs), wherever feasible. "CIL has also envisaged working on large numbers of Highwalls (HW) mines in view of the availability of Abandoned / Discontinued mines," he added.
"In its Opencast (OC) mines, CIL has already used state-of-the-art technology in its high-capacity excavators, dumpers and surface miners. Digitisation is being tried on pilot scale in seven of its mega mines and shall be replicated further. SCCL is expediting the activities to ground eight new mines. Out of which, seven mines will be from Telangana and one from Odisha," the minister added.
The government is taking various measures to make the country self-sufficient in the production of coal and reduce its imports, said Joshi. He also said that the coal production in the financial year 2022-2023 (upto February 2023) is about 785.24 MT as compared to about 681.98 MT during the same period of last year, registering a growth of about 15.14 percent.
Regarding the various steps taken by the government, Joshi said that Coal Ministry is conducting regular reviews to expedite the development of coal blocks. For operationalisation of coal mines faster, he said that a single window clearance portal for the coal sector has been introduced. Further, the Project Monitoring Unit for handholding of coal block allottees will provide clearances and approvals for early operationalisation of mines.
The government is also organising commercial auctions on revenue-sharing basis. Under the commercial mining scheme, the government will provide a rebate of 50 percent on final offer would be allowed for the quantity of coal produced earlier than scheduled date of production. Also, incentives on coal gasification or liquefaction (rebate of 50 percent on final offer) have been granted.
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