The plans of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd. (SCCL) to commence mining of coal this financial year in the Naini project allotted to it in Odisha have gone a step ahead with the 783.275 hectares of forest land getting Stage-1 clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).
Based on the proposal sent by the Odisha government, the MoEF has given the first-stage forest approval to the project. The land allotted to SCCL in the Naini block includes 643.095 hectares of reserved forest land and 140.18 hectares of village forest land in Chendipada and Kunkurupa villages of the Angul forest division.
The first-stage forest clearance orders were received by the Forest Department of Odisha. The land would be transferred to SCCL once the second-stage forest clearance is accorded. The total land allotted to SCCL in the Naini block is 912.799 hectares but 738.275 hectares of it is forest land.
Management of SCCL has taken up Naini as a prestigious project and has been pursuing with the Central agencies concerned on a regular basis for speedy clearances. According to SCCL officials, all documents, which were sought by the expert appraisal committee of MoEF on environmental clearance at its May 25 meeting, were submitted after it was deferred seeking additional information.
The project area has 378.64 million tonnes of mineable coal reserves including 340.78 million tonnes extractable in the opencast method and rest in the underground mining method. The company plans to extract 10 million tonnes of coal per annum from the Naini project that costs ₹494.3 crore.
