The government has kicked off an emergency plan to step up output of coal and the public investment board, chaired by the expenditure secretary, has cleared 16 proposals of Coal India and its arms, entailing an investment of over Rs 5,000 crore during the last few days.

It is understood that the new projects would add another 100 million tonne of coal capacity in the country. At present, the total coal output is around 400 million tonnes, which includes CIL’s 290 million tonnes and about 100 million tonnes produced by various industries for captive use. Private mining of coal for commercial purpose is not allowed.

The projects cleared by PIB include doubling of the capacity of Bhubaneshwari open cast mine to 20 million tonnes, addition of 10 million tonnes to the 25 million tonnes Gevra project, a fresh 12 million tonnes project at Magadh, additional capacities of 9 million tonnes at Bharatpur mine, 7 million tonnes at Khadia, 7.5 million tonnes at Ashok, 6.5 million tonnes at Kaniah and 5 million tonnes at Kusmunda sites

The board, comprising finance and coal ministries and the Planning Commission, will shortly meet to consider another seven proposals, including Harjanbahal, Jhanjra, Bina and Kusmunda projects. The Cabinet committee on economic affairs is expected to give the go-ahead for these projects

The paucity in the domestic sector together with increasing prices in the global market has made imports expensive, hitting user industries like power, cement, steel and fertilizers. High price of coal is not only threatening to jack up the cost of power for industrial units, but has the potential to bring economic activity to a halt.

The government is also considering outsourcing of key mining activities under the emergency plan. Under this, the country would have surplus coal supply of 10 million tonnes by 2011-12, as against a shortfall of about 60 million tonnes now. About 30-35 million tonnes of new capacity would be added in the next 2-3 years