MUMBAI: India’s environment ministry has allowed coalmines with clearances to step up production by up to 50 percent, without seeking feedback from locals, it said in a memo reviewed by Reuters.
The decision was taken after a request from the coal ministry which pointed to “huge pressure on domestic coal supply in the country,” the ministry said, in a memo dated May 7, adding that the “special dispensation” will be valid for six months.
India is also planning to reopen more than 100 coalmines previously considered financially unsustainable, as the worst power crisis in over six years driven by a scorching heatwave forces the world’s third-biggest greenhouse gas emitter to double down on the fuel, after months of low consumption.
The projects “shall be granted expansion environmental clearance to increase their production capacity to 50 percent of original capacity within the same mine lease area, without requiring revised environmental impact assessment report for additional capacity and public consultation,” the memo read.
Demand for coal has risen due to post-pandemic economic recovery and an unrelenting heatwave. The government is forcing utilities to step up imports and Coal India to ramp up production to address supply shortages.
India’s Ola Electric chief says e-scooter fires rare but can happen
There may be more fires in electric scooters in the future, but such incidents are very rare, the chief executive of India’s Ola Electric said at a private company event, after safety concerns were heightened by a fire in one of its scooters in March.
“Will there be occurrences in the future, there might be,” CEO Bhavish Aggarwal replied, when asked a question about the fires at a private event on Sunday.
“But our commitment is that we will make sure we analyze every issue, and if there are fixes to be done we will fix them,” he said, according to a recording from the event reviewed by Reuters.
He described the fires as being “very rare and isolated” in a recording from the event, at which the company previewed a new operating system for its e-scooters.
Ola’s e-scooter fire was among a spate of similar recent incidents that triggered an uproar on social media and an investigation by the Indian government.
The company, backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group, has recalled more than 1,400 e-scooters and appointed external experts to investigate the cause.
(With inputs from Reuters)
