Red Tape Chokes Indian Coal Mine

All held up over permit to clear one-half acre

Bureaucratic red tape over clearance for less than half an acre of forest land has held up production of nearly 16 million tonnes of power grade coal from two opencast mines at Talcher in Orissa.

While production this fiscal at the two mines — Bharatpur and Jagannath — will be down to nearly 10 mt, Coal India expects them to go dry in 2013-14. …

And, now, MCL has been asked to comply with the lengthy FRA formalities for the 0.4 acre of forest land — to be retained as a buffer zone — on the periphery of the mine.