Environment Min should have consulted stakeholders before junking mandatory coal washing: Alok Perti

The environment ministry should have consulted stakeholders before doing away with mandatory washing of coal for thermal plants, former coal secretary Alok Perti said on Saturday. Perti also referred to frequent quality complaints from power plants about bad coal with high ash content during his tenure as the secretary.

"As per standing practice, ministry of environment should have put the notification in public domain giving time to stakeholders and public to give their objectives / inputs. This was not done in this case," Perti said in a webinar held by Coal Preparation Society of India. The webinar was held to deliberate upon the pros and cons of the government notification dated May 21, which annulled January 2014 notification that mandated supply and use of washed coal with ash content, not over 34 per cent, in coal fired power plants located beyond 500 km from supplying mines and also those located in urban and environmentally sensitive areas.

He also suggested to switching over from UHV (Useful Heat Value) to Gross Calorific Value grading system. Former Coal India Chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya said when Coal India came up with IPO in 2010, he could convince investors on the assurance that the PSU would take steps to improve the quality of dispatches by installing coal washeries.

He had planned to set up 19 washeries with aggregate capacity of 111 million tonnes per year. But the situation drastically changed as the washeries were not set up for various reasons.

He also mentioned about the advantages of using washed dry-fuel like consistency of coal quality, saving in freight, better plant load factor, and reduced plants emissions. The panel discussion concluded that the notification issued by the government was totally a retrograde step on the part of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

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