Establishment of Sustainable Development Cell (SDC) by Ministry of Coal
Recently a Sustainable Development Cell (SDC) has been set up in the Ministry of Coal.
- Sustainable Development Cell (SDC) has been set up for giving advises and plan action to reduce the adverse impact of mining.
- SDC is also preparing a future policy framework for environmental mitigation in the coal and lignite sector.
- This is in line with the recent announcement on new climate targets under the “Panchamrut Strategy” outlined by the Prime Minister at COP26.
Other steps taken by the Ministry of Coal to accelerate efforts to achieve sustainable development: –
- The land mined by all the coal companies is being bio-reclamation through a massive plantation drive.
- A target has been set to cover more than 12000 hectares of land for plantation (in the next 5 years).
- Surface coal gasification projects will be implemented for the production of syngas for the production of methanol/ethanol, urea or petrochemicals.
- Syngas is a gaseous mixture of hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO) and some carbon dioxide (CO).
- Under the First Mile Connectivity (FMC) initiative, coal is loaded from the Coal Handling Plant to the silo through Conveyor Rubel. This process eliminates the movement of coal through roadways.
- Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is being used to replace the consumption of diesel in mining and coal transport equipment.
Source – PIB
