Planning Com. emphasises need for efficient use of energy sources

New Delhi, Dec 11 (UNI) The Deputy Chairman, Planning commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has emphasised the need for efficient use of energy resources which are vital for sustaining the nine per cent growth rate in the 11th Plan.

Inaugurating the International Coal Congress and Expo here today, Mr Ahluwalia underlined the significant role that coal would play as a source of energy particularly since hydrocarbons are limited. He also underscored the need for comparable pricing for different sources of energy which need not be absolutely identical in the backdrop of historic evolution of pricing in different sectors of energy sources.

Delivering the presidential address, Miniter of State for Coal Dr Dasari Narayan Rao informed that the UPA Government has moved very fast in allocation of captive Coal Blocks to increase domestic coal production by increasing the number of players. The number of coal producers have increased from just about five to about 100 now which include 30 in the public sector and 65 producers in the private sector.

Earlier, the field was limited to only Coal India, SingarenI Collaries, Tata Steel and Indian Iron and Steel Company and Damodar Valley Corporation. Describing this as a major achievement, he said during the last two and a half years as many as 77 coal blocks have been allocated for captive and commercial mining as against only 46 between 1993, when captive mining was introduced, and 2004. The Minister also informed that Government has almost finalised allocation of another 20 coal blocks and eight lignite blocks.

Apart from the 148 captive blocks initially identified for allocation, he said government has recently identified 81 blocks with total reserves of about 20 billion tonnes. The Minister also informed that government have permitted allocation of group captive mines to enable small industries access captive coal. These initiatives, Dr Rao said have the potential to add 100-150 million tonnes of coal production per year, outside the domain of coal PSUs.

The Coal Minister emphasized the need for beneficiation of Coal and said this area offers additional investment opportunity for the private sector in the range of Rs 8000-16000 crore to meet the coal washing requirements of about 380 million tonnes in 2025. This is against the present washing capacities of about 100 million tonnes.

The increase will reduce transportation requirements by about 104 to 210 million tonnes by 2025.

Minister of State for Mines Dr T Subbarami Reddy spoke about tremendous investment potential in the mining sector. He said investor friendly initiatives have been taken by the government to encourage participation of both public and private sector in mining sector.

Secretary, Ministry of Coal H C Gupta underlined the need for coal sector to grow at a rapid rate in order to supplement high GDP growth rate targets in the coming year. He said private participation is being encouraged to make this a reality. The coal production need to be atleast doubled to bridge demand supply gap as the coal demand is likely to grow by 10 per cent over next 10 years as compared to less than four per cent in last 10 years.

He further informed that the process of allotment of 100 more coal blocks and eight lignite blocks is on which is in addition to 123 coal blocks with 27 billion tones reserves already allotted to various public and private companies. Regarding demand for further restructuring coal sector, the Coal Secretary informed that an Expert Committee on Road Map for Coal Sector Reforms has been asked to examine the issue in order to make coal sector globally competitive.

The three-day International Coal Congress and Expo 2006 has been organized by the Institution of Engineers under the aegis of World Mining Congress.

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