Meghalaya Digs in, To Regularise Coal Mining

By Indronil Roychowdhury

Kolkata/Shillong, Feb 14 : The Meghalaya government has finally decided to institutionalize and regulate coal mining activities in the state in view of the land degradation and forest depletion that are taking place owing to the present unscientific mining methods.

Meghalaya is the only state in the country where miners don’t need to take a mining lease from the government. Resultant: any individual owning coal-bearing land can extract coal and sell it in the market.

According to Meghalaya’s deputy chief minister Mukul Sangma, in an effort to bring all coal mining activities under the national Coal Mining (Conservation & Development) Act, 1974, the state government has engaged Coal India Ltd (CIL) to prepare a plan for institutional mining in the region. “We will first review the plan and then take a decision,” Sangma said.

Coal India chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya, while maintaining institutional mining was an imminent requirement in the state, said CIL had already submitted a draft plan for institutional mining on which the state government had to take a call. “If the state starts institutional mining, it comes under the national Coal Mining Act,” he said.

Bhattacharyya said it was not yet known whether the mines in Meghalaya would come under Coal India’s control or the state government, along with CIL, would float an SPV for the purpose.

Besides environment concerns, the state government’s efforts to develop thermal power plants are leading it to regularize mining activities in the region, Sangma said. “We are negotiating with NEEPCO and some private players to develop coal-based thermal power plants in the state,” he said.

“For the initial stage we have identified two sites — one at South Garo hills and another at the West Khasi hills — to generate a total of 960mw by the end of the 11 th plan period,” Sangma added. Meghalaya’s coal reserves are among the finest quality in the country with low ash content and high calorific value, though presence of sulphur in it is very high. Coal found in the region is primarily of sub-bituminous variety and has very good coking content with ash below 7-8%.

According to a Meghalaya government official, the state has around 660 million tones of coal reserves with the Garo hills alone having reserves of around 350 mt. West Dadenggiri, Balpakram, Pyndengrei, Siju, Mawlong-Shella, Laitryngew, Langrin and Bapung are prominent coal-bearing areas and are all witness to unorganised mining, the official added. India’s total proven coal reserves is estimated at around 197 billion tones with last year’s total production at 492.95 million tones.