Centre to consider Tata Steel's request for green nod in May

New Delhi: The Centre will consider next month Tata Steel's request seeking environment clearance to its coal mine expansion project in Jharkhand.

An expansion will enhance the capacity of Tata Steel's West Bokaro project by two million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

Tata Steel operates the open-cast West Bokaro collieries for captive use in West Bokaro Coalfields located in Hazaribag and Ramgarh districts in Jharkhand.

"The Expert Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is slated to take up the matter in May for grant of environment clearance to West Bokaro Opencast Expansion Coal Mine Project from 7 MTPA to 9 MTPA in a mining lease (ML) area of 1,740 hectares," an official source said.

The Committee would also look into grant of environment clearance for expansion of Tata Steel's Washery-II from 2.9 MTPA to 4 MTPA, the source said.

The integrated proposals for expansion of the West Bokaro Opencast coalmine project and Washery II were earlier considered in the meeting of the Expert Appraisal Committee in August and October, 2011.

The West Bokaro open cast project (OCP) was earlier granted an environment clearance in May 2007 for expansion from 5 MTPA to 7 MTPA capacity in ML area of 1,740 hectares.

Tata Steel, which is among the top ten producers of steel globally, needs to expand the capacity of mines and washeries to meet the increased demand of coal for expansion of its linked steel plant located in Jamshedpur.

According to information, the mine is very old and was not nationalised under the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act 1973.

Tata Steel recently completed brownfield expansion at its Jamshedpur facility to enhance capacity to about 10 MTPA.

The company reported a turnover of USD 24.82 billion in FY 2013.