Coal India can more than double its output to 1,132 million tonnes from this year target of 464 million tonnes if it secures necessary approvals particularly forest clearances for 179 projects and start production from new mines by 2016-17.

According to data provided by the company a total 179 forestry proposals are awaiting clearances. Out of these, 130 proposals are awaiting stage-1 clearance and 49 proposals are awaiting stage-II forestry clearances.

A CIL official said "Under stage-I clearance, the forest department lays down a host of conditions and asks for certain deposits for the land being used for mining. Stage-I is like in principle approval. If these conditions are fulfilled and the money is deposited, it receives stage-II clearance. Following this it goes to the state government for transfer of land to Coal India. The entire process takes some four-five years in all."

Nevertheless, total area involved for forest clearance is 15,656 hectares at stage-I level and 13,115 hectares at stage-II level.

CIL official said "Out of the 179 proposals, 45 proposals are awaiting approvals at Ministry of Forest and Environment level 26 at stage-I level and 19 at stage-II level. The 26 forestry proposals awaiting clearances at MoEF stage-I are expected to contribute around 25 million tonnes and the other 19 proposals at stage-II are expected to contribute around 69 million tonnes during 2016-17."

If Coal India is able to get environment and forest clearances for these projects, it would significantly boost the outlook for the power sector, which is battling a severe shortage of coal and is forced to keep large capacity idle as it has no coal to burn. Coal India output has stagnated in recent years while private companies have built generation capacity at a record pace.

About 57 environmental clearances with incremental capacity of 137 million tonnes per year are awaiting clearances at different levels. Out of these 8 proposals with an incremental capacity of 14.44 million tonnes are awaiting terms of reference approval, three proposals with capacity of 21.86 million tonnes are awaiting clearance from the Expert Appraisal Committee and 29 proposals with capacity of 77.26 million tonnes are awaiting final clearance. Out of the 57 total clearances, 15 proposals are also awaiting stage-I forest clearance.

Additionally, 147 projects are in various stages of implementation with a total capacity of 437 million tonnes. According to Coal India, during 2011-12, 85 ongoing projects have contributed 211 million tonnes and 100 such projects are expected to contribute 228.67 million tonnes during the 2012-13. Another 136 projects have been planned to contribute 333.83 million tonnes during the 2016-17.

Out of these total 147 projects, 80 projects have required forest clearance and environment clearance, while environment and forest clearance are awaited for 13 and 34 projects, respectively. Some 20 projects require both environment and forest clearance.

A total 72 projects with an estimated production capacity of 257.26 million tonnes have been identified to be taken up during the 12th plan Period. In addition, 50 plan projects with an estimated capacity of 156.59 million tonnes and two projects identified during the 10th Plan Period will be also be taken up during the 12th Plan Period.

A total of 133 projects with a capacity of 420.85 million tonnes are being planned to be taken up during the current plan period. Of these 88 projects will contribute about 86 million tonnes during 2016-17.