Against a widening demand and supply gap that is likely to reach 265 million tonne in the next five years, the government said it will seek Indonesia's cooperation for grant of blocks to Indian firms under a special status.

The Ministry of Coal will impress upon provisional government/regional government to allocate blocks under their special status (most favoured nation type) to the Indian government coal companies.

Seeking allocation of coal blocks on "nomination basis", an official document of the ministry said it will be sending a team from the Coal Ministry and CIL to Indonesia to pursue the matter.

The decision to approach Indonesian government was taken in a joint working group meeting of India-Indonesia on Coal on November 24 and 25.

Seeking allocation of large greenfield (new) coal concession on nomination basis, the ministry will also impress upon the Indonesian government for expeditious environmental and forest clearances besides land acquisition.

Coal India which accounts for 81% of the domestic coal production had said recently that it has zeroed in on two overseas coal assets, including one in Indonesia, for acquisition and expects to begin serious dialogue with the owners soon.

The PSU has put together a war-chest of INR 6,000 crore for acquisition of the mines.

The country at present faces a coal demand-supply shortfall of 142 million tonnes, with domestic output likely to amount to 554 million tonnes in the current fiscal.

(Sourced from profit.ndtv.com)