Bring coking coal mines under Steel Ministry: SAIL chief

OUR BUREAU, THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE
NEW DELHI, APRIL 30:
Steel makers want coking coal mines in the country to be brought under the ambit of Steel Ministry for effective administration. They have also sought Government funding for R&D initiatives in steel to encourage collaborative research.

“The Coal Ministry is basically focussed on development of thermal coal. There's not much attention given to the development of coking coal mines in the country. So they should be brought under the Steel Ministry,” said Mr C.S. Verma, Chairman SAIL and head of CII's Steel Committee. Mr Verma was speaking at the CII Steel Summit 2012.

Coking coal is a key ingredient for making steel and domestic steel makers rely heavily on imports mainly from Australia to meet their requirement. It is estimated that India has coking coal reserves of 33 billion tonnes, which are not exploited adequately.

In a bid to achieve the targeted steel production of 200 million tonnes by 2020, the coking coal mines should be brought under the Ministry of Steel, Mr Verma said.

Further, he stressed on the need for timely grant of statutory approval for mine leases and ease in land acquisition process. Indian steel makers' R&D spend ranged from 0.15-0.25 per cent of their turnover, while their global counterparts spend 2-2.5 per cent of their earnings.

Stating that globally breakthrough technologies were possible only through Government aided R&D projects; Mr Verma called for such support in India to encourage collaborative research.