Year End Review 2017: Ministry of Coal

Year End Review 2017: Ministry of Coal

Question: on 22.05.2017, New More Transparent Coal Allocation Policy for Power Sector, 2017 n has been issued. What is the name of this Policy?
(a) Vidhut
(b) Vikash
(c) Urja
(d) Shakti
Answer: (d)
Related Facts:

  • On December 28th 2017, Year End Review 2017: Ministry of Coal was released.
  • Major achievement for year 2017 according to review is as follows:
  • Total 84 coal mines (53-Allotment, 31-Auction) have been successfully allocated under the provisions of the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 and Rules.
  • A total of 36.25 MT coal has been produced till October, 2017 from the operational allocated coal mines since allotment.
  • A total revenue of Rs. 4109.31crores (excluding royalty, cess, taxes etc.) has been generated till November, 2017 from the above said coal mines.
  • A High Power Expert Committee has been constituted on 18.12.2017 to examine efficacy and challenges of the current bidding system to suggest changes for conducting future auction of coal mines.
  • A Technical Committee has been constituted on 29-11-2017 to operationalize the methodology for flexibility in utilization of coal extracted from the coal mines allotted for optimum utilization of coal mine for the same end uses in the public interest and to achieve cost efficiencies.
  • Two-level Monitoring Committee (level-1 under chairmanship of Hon’ble Minister of Coal and level-2 under chairmanship of Secretary (Coal) has been constituted.
  • Committee will review the development/operationalization of coal blocks with Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change and Chief Ministers of concerned States along with concerned officials on quarterly basis.
  • A Scrutiny Committee has been constituted to consider/examine the submissions/replies made by Successful Bidders/Allottees of the coal mines.
  • Coal Blocks Development & Production Agreements for 3 coal blocks, viz. Pachwara South, Kerwa and Brahmani have been signed on 22.02.2017, 18.08.2017 and 04.09.2017 respectively.
  • Deocha-Pachami block was decided to be jointly allocated to the entities of 6 State viz. West Bengal, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
  • The production of raw coal in the country during April-November 2017-18 was 396.53 Mte compared to 388.68 Mte during the corresponding period of previous year.
  • The overall growth in Coal production during April- November, 2017 was 2 %.
  • Coal production and coal dispatch/off-take of Coal India Limited (CIL), the state sector coal mining company, during April-November 2017-18 were 329.30 MT and 367.98 MT respectively.
  • New More Transparent Coal Allocation Policy for Power Sector, 2017- SHAKTI has been issued on 22.05.2017.
  • Inter-Ministerial Task Force was constituted in June, 2014 for review of existing coal sources as also feasibility for rationalization of these sources with a view to optimize transportation cost.
  • The composition of new exchange traded fund namely Bharat 22 ETF with 22 constituent entities approved.
  • Inter-Company Safety Audit of all the 366 operative mines of CIL was completed during Jan-April 2017.
  • Mines were categorized in high, medium and low category. The Mitigation plan along with time line for mines has been identified.
  • In respect of exploration of coal, for 2017-18, a target of 12.50 lakh metre of drilling (Departmental: 4.75 lakh metre, Outsourcing: 7.75 lakh metre) was envisaged.
  • In respect of Research and Development, sixteen (16) projects are on going, out of which one project namely CP-49 started during the year 2017.

Reference:     
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=174981