19 Written Answers [RAJYA SABHA] to Questions 20

As regards the maintenance expendi- ture, in the case of EPIP (Export Pro- (a) what are the new sites for coal de- motion Industrial Parks) which you are* posits fouria" in the region of going to establish, as I mentioned earlier, ; 75 per cent of the capital investment will be borne by us, by the Centre, and to (b) by when the exploitation of tries? maintain the quality of the facilities coal sites will be started; which are being created there, the levy which is imposed on the befceficiaries (c) whether the survey for new sites is will be passed on to the States so that the still going on; and States do have adequate resources to (d) if so, what are the details thereof? maintain the facilities which" are being created there. That point we have already THE MINISTER QF.'STATE OF THE taken care of. MINISTRY OF. COAL (SHRI AIITV KUMAR PANJA): (a) .Geological Survey As regards the dissemination of in- of (GSI) have identified Nand, formation—4his is a very important point, Bokhara and Makardhokra as new poten- —we have decided that a company is tial coal bearing areas in Vidarbha region going to be established very shortly. IB of Maharashtra. FACT THECabinejt has cleared this propo- sal. The Company constituted by the ITPO (b) Programme for exploitation for and the, NIC of the Planning CornmissioB these new areas is dependent oh factors, are going to float jointly; a company like completion of detailed expiorario v whose, job will be to .collect in-1 availability of land, techno-economic'fea- formation because all the districts are now, sibiliiy of individaul projects, availability. brought under the computer network of environmental and forestry clearaness through NICNET;and all -the- relevant and that of financial resource's for taking, information connected with trade will be , up the individual projects! available not only to the Stats headquarters (c)'arnl (d) GSI is presently conducing but also to all the important • trading exploration for coal in Jogupur-Ghanpui' centres in different parts of the! country. areas in Wardha Valley coalfield. GSI has But it will take some time to build it up. also planned regional exploration in Tney will start their operations some time Masak-Asthi-Chora areas in . Wardha in the first week of October. Valley coalfield and in Katol basin in district in Vidarbha area of SHRI SURINDER KUMAR Maharashtra. SINGLA: Sir, I want to know. .. DR. SHRIKANT RAMCHANDR.V MR. CHAIRMAN; Now, I am going JICBKAR: Sir the hon Minister has given to the next question. the va-h is factors on which the *203. (The questioner (Shri Jansrdai programme of exploitation would depend. Yadav) was absent. For answer, vide col. In this list of factors he has not mentioned 28 infra.) one of the most important factors and that is immediate proximity to densely New sites for coat deposits in Vidarbhat populated areas. Sir, Bokhara and region Makardhokra have been identified as *204. DR. SHRI KANT RAM- potential sites. This Bokhara, is techni- CHANDRA JICHKAR : cally just adjoining the Municipal Corpo- ration limits of Nagpur City, and in SHRI V. RAJESHWAR RAO: practical terms, the octroi post of Nagpur Will the Minister of COAI, be pleased on the Nagpur Saoner Road has gone be- tc state: yond the Bokhara village. So, all the *The question was actually asked on the floor of . the; House by Dr.- Shrikant. Raruchandra lichkar. 21 Written Answers [8 AUG. 1994 ] to Questions 22 factors, are complete. The land is avail- because of the food in that area and, able. But the Bokhara village is in the according to the information we have immediate proximity of densely received,' this has nothing to do with the populated areas. Many residential areas coal mining. Eight inches of rainfall go beyond Bokhara. So, I would like to took place in a day recently in that area. know whether this factor would also be Some mines were flooded. But taken into consideration while immediate steps were taken by the exploiting the site of Bokhara. officers and the people concerned with safety. Therefore there was no danger to SHRI AJIT KUMAR PANJA: Yes, the mines. So far as the areas of new Sir, how much is the population, which coalfields are concerned, particularly will be affected, is one of the factors Nagpur city, if there is any danger, L then which is always taken into this co-ordinating group operates and consideration while starting coal naturally those ureas, where a large mining. number of people will be affected, are consulted in the planning DR. SHRIKANT RAMCHANDRA JICHKAR: Sir, the entire population of DR. SHRIKANT RAMCHANDRA Nagpur will be affected. My second JICHKAR: The Minister has answered sup-plementary is that, during the flood that there was no danger to the mines in the first fortnight of July in Vidarbha during the flood. There was danger to region, I? so happened that in parts of the population. So many people died. I Nagpur and Chandrapur districts, where am satisfied with the. Minister's, reply. the coal-mines are situated, water got But he should . reinforce,;that assurance, collected because of open mines and with respect to Bokhara and because of earth being piled up creating Makardhokra. a dam-like structure. Water got collected without any reinforcement MR. CHAIRMAN: T, think the and when water got collected in hug? Minister has given the assurance. Shri quantity .in one nignt, the earth gave V. Rajeshthanwar Rao. . . . Way and thousands of houses were SHRI V. RAJESHWAR RAO: Sir, I washed away and 60 people died. There wouia-Uke to know whether vhe is always A danger when a coal-mine Geological Survey of India bas site is in the immediate proximity of explored any site in and densely propulated areas. Therefore, I around~Ranitek tSwn. would like to know from the Minister that in view of the recent experience in SHRI AJIT KUMAR PANJA: As Nagpur and Chandrapur districts, where regards Ramtek, Use figures are not 60 people died, whether he would with me. I will find out and inform the ensure that, before developing and hon. Member. exploiting the sites in Bokhara and Makardhokra, the danger to the popula- SHRI SUSHILKUMAR tion of Nagpur city would be SAMBHAJI-RAO SH1N-DE: . How considered on top. priority. much is the private sector participation in coal-mines in view oTthe new policy SHRI AJIT KUMAR PANJA: Sir, of the Government? You are having coal is extracted for the benefit of the new sites in, Nagpur, Vilarbha area as people. Therefore, first consideration is also in West Bengal, in Bihar and in given to environment, rehabilitation other places- what exactly is your new and safety measures. In all cbal-minins policy? Will you please throw light on projects, safety of the miners as well as this? the pro-pulation in the peripheral area is inbuilt and it is studied. It is-co- SHRI AJIT KUMAR PANJA: Sir. ordinated, taking all aspects together, this House has passed an amendment by the nodal unit of CMPM at Ranchi. by which the Coal Nationalisation Act in fact, eight or njne agencies operate to was ended allowing the private people find out what the difficulties would be to set. up captive power plants. If. they so far as the dentfi of 60 people is put up a power station for production of concerned, it was electricity, then a captive coal-mine would be 23 Written Answers [ RAJYA SABHA] to Questions 24 given to them. That was the amendment ready and the details are gone into, cer- passed by (his House and by «he Lok tainly, the hon. Members will come to Sabha and it has became an Act. Along know about (he price formula. with that whoever wants 10 put up a washery, whether it is a private enter- prise or whether it is a joint venture or whether it is people from outside, will also be given a captive coal-mine 'so that' coal can be mined by them and used in tha washery. But the produced washed coal will be purchased at the doorstep by the Limited as at present. These are (he changes that took place. So far as Maharashtra is concerned, three such private parties have shown interest. One is M/s. Nipon Denro Ispat Limited. They have given a proposal for setting up firstly a 1000 MW power plant at Unwed. They have again sought for a permission for an additional 1000 MW capacity, thus totalling 2000 MW They Jiavo asked for certain captive coal mines. /And the first coal mine which is being identified for them is Baranj I—IV. A Committee has been set up to identify Baranj I—IV and Bander except in areas where the coal India Limited and WCL have started working. The second party is M/s. AOC Limited. They have also asked for a captive coal mine ot 25 MW power plant their own factory. And me third one is M/s. RPG Industries Limited. They hav ealso shown their interest in captive coal mines. But we could not give captive mines to them; because no other captive coal mine is available at present. They have also aske.l for a linkage. Sir, we have found that M/s. BPG Industries Limited and M|s. Nipon Denro Ispat Limited have shown interest in developing captive mining blocks. Both these things are pendnig and we ne*d power. We have asked tor a Master Plan for the entire Wardna field which may be completed in the course of this year and all these private peopel will be. able to participate. SHRI AJIT KUMAR PANJA: Sir, So far as the fund position is concerned, I SHRI JAGESH DESAI; You have not talked about the price formula for pur- chases made by the private sector.

SHRI AJIT KUMAR PANJA: Regarding price formula, as I said, the MOU jand other things are under discussion. Therefore, when the Master Plan is made 25 Written Answers [8 AUG. 1994] to Questions 26 feel teat the hon. Member wants to cord. The power sector says that it is know what the amount of funds for not given the coal it demanded. Will exploration is. The fund for exploration the Government make an enquiry? was given from 1989. And this is given SHRI AJIT KUMAR PANTA; If to thei Mineral Exploration Corporation the, name of aut particular power Limited (MECL). This year, it is about company is pointed out, I will certainly Rs. 10 crores. This is only for coal look into the matter. exploration. So far as the country's reserve of coal is concerned, as on 1st January, 1994, it is a little over 1,96,000 milfioa tonnes. This figure is for the whole country. Of this, file book reserve that is already in existence is 68,047.39 million tonnes. Our yearly output is about 250 million tonnes. At the end of the Eighth Five-Year P!an, it is projected at 300 million tonnes. At the beginning of the next century, it will be about 500 million tonnes per year. Therefore, there is enough coal reserve. So, far as the danger as pointed out by the hon. Member is concerned, there1 is no danger at all for giving captive Coal- mines. to the new people, the private people, for establishing power stations because this aspect was thorougty discussed in this House and in the other House when the Act was amended. So far as the supply of coal is concer- ned, it is not correct to say that any power station anywhere in the country has been affected because of either insufficient coal supply or bad quality coal. There is a check system. Every week, the Coordination Committee SHRI AHT KUMAR PANJA: Sir, reviews the position and the this is a question related to WCL, Ma- representatives of the Ministries of harashtra. I need notice for answering Coal, Poiwen Railway? and the this question of the Hoatrie Member as Department of Supply sit together. it is outside the scope of the main ques- In regard to 'D' grade coal, we have tion. got enough supply and the figures will show that during .tn© last three years, Pension scheme for P. F. there has been improvement in the contributors plant load factor and it is not correct to say that the plant load factor has diminished. Whenever a complaint *205. SHRI RAMDAS AGARWAL: comes regarding content, it is SHRI K M. KHAN:† immediately attended to or the Will the Minister of LABOUR, corresponding amount of rnPney is be pleased to refer to the answer to deducted from th© hill. Therefore, I Starred can assure the hon. Member that so far as the power sector is concerned, it will *The question was actually asked on not suffer or want of quality coal the floor of the House by'Shri K. M. SHRI JOGESH DESAI: Sir, recently Khan. a public sector company has gone on re-