Team News Riveting
New Delhi, September 1
Minister for coal and mines Pralhad Joshi said that India had aimed for 100 million tonnes (MT) coal gasification by 2030 with an investment of over Rs 4 lakh crore.
Addressing a webinar on Coal Gasification and Liquefaction, Joshi said that Coal Gasification and Liquefaction was no more an aspiration, but a requirement. He added that for encouraging use of clean sources of fuel, government had provided a concession of 20 per cent on revenue share of coal used for gasification.
The coal minister emphasized that this would boost production of synthetic natural gas, energy fuel, urea for fertilisers and production of other chemicals. The webinar was organised by Ministry of Coal (MoC) in New Delhi for discussing the road map for achieving the target. The webinar was attended by around 700 delegates from Government of India, CIL and the coal sector.
Reiterating on government’s commitments for green initiatives in the coal sector, Joshi said that Coal Gasification and Liquefaction were well in the government’s agenda and various actions had been taken for development of Surface Coal Gasification in India.
A Steering Committee has been constituted in this regard under the chairmanship of Dr. V K Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog comprising of members from the Ministry of Coal. CIL has also planned to set up at least 3 gasification plants (besides Dankuni) on BOO basis through global tendering and has signed an MOU with GAIL for marketing synthetic natural gas.
Joshi urged the attendees of the session to explore more about technologies and other aspects in Coal Gasification sector, in line with our country’s SWOT analysis. He added that this would help in harnessing nation’s reserves for maximum utilisation while heading on the path to sustainability, as per global standards.
NITI Aayog member Dr. V K Saraswat, Coal Secretary Anil Kumar Jain also addressed the webinar. CIL Director (Technical) Binay Dayal, Director, CIMFR Dr P K Singh, GM PDIL Ashutosh Prasad, Chairman JSPL Naveen Jindal, CEO Mundra Synergy Rajesh Jha, JSPL MD Dr. V R Sharma, Partner True North Ventures Dr Dev Gacaskar, and Group VP of Air Products Bob Carter also shared their views and valuable information.
