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Key Challenges Facing the Coal Sector

In: Business and Management

Submitted By batra210
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Key Challenges facing the coal Sector
The critical issues facing the coal sector are highlighted below:
• Lack of Investments in Mining
In spite of the economic liberalization of 1991 the mining sector has not seen major investments. This is possibly due to the problems such as government policy, land acquisition, development of infrastructure, transportation system, social engineering and community development involved in major green field site projects. There is a need to re-look at the total management solution for attracting investment in new mines. The solution has to lead to the creation of joint venture institutions with central government, state government and private sector as partners.
The facilitation for the project through provision of land, infrastructural development, community development etc, can be done by the government agencies whereas the investment in the mine and the associated technological inputs can come from the private sector. In addition, the private sector must have the freedom to run the mine in a cost effective manner. This may be a long term solution for future mines in India and it will have unique opportunities for both the government and private sector to work together for India's development.
• Historically, opencast mining has been favored over underground mining. This has led to land degradation, environmental pollution and reduced quality of coal as it tends to get mixed with other matter.
• In addition, current economic mining practices are generally limited to depths of 300 meters and 25 percent of the reserves of the country are beyond this depth.
• Further, coal mining in India is associated with poor employee productivity. The output per miner per annum in India varies from 150 to 2,650 tonnes compared to an average of around 12,000 tonnes in the USA and Australia.
• India has still not been able to develop a comprehensive solution to deal with the fly ash generated at coal power stations through use of Indian coal.
• Clean coal technologies, such as Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, where the coal is converted to gas, are available, but these are expensive and need modification to suit Indian coal specifications.

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