Jharkhand shuts 22 mines of Coal India

The Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board has ordered shutting down 22 open-cast mines of Coal India.

These mines in Jharia belong to subsidiary Bharat Coking Coal Ltd and account for a fifth of output.

The closure was ordered after Bharat of the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board to get mandatory clearances from the Union ministry of forests and environment, sources said.

Work has stopped in 14 mines since Saturday, while others would be shut soon.

Coal India reportedly failed to respond to a show-cause notice issued to it by the Jharkhand body, sources familiar with the development said.

The closure of 22 out of Bharat Coking’s 103 mines can bring down production by about 35,000-40,000 tonne a day.

This comes at a time when Coal India is finding hard to raise output in existing mines and start new mines.

The world’s largest miner is now planning to approach the Union environment ministry on the issue and may even seek intervention of the court, sources in the company said.

Out of Coal India’s 2010-11 production of 424.50 million tonne, Bharat Coking contributed 29.29 million tonne, the only subsidiary among its eight arms to exceed target.

The lack of approval for its mines is a legacy issue. All the mines in Jharia were inherited and amalgamated from more than 400 private leaseholders during nationalisation in 1971-73.

After expiry of lease period there was a requirement of renewal of mining lease as well as environmental clearance of these mines.

Since all these mines are adjacent to each other facing similar type of environmental problems such as land degradation, underground fire and issues like rehabilitation and resettlement due to high population density, Bharat Coking clustered these into group of mines and cluster-wise environmental clearance have been sought.