Nagpur: The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has given environmental clearance to Mahanirmiti's proposed Garepalma-2 coal mine in Chhattisgarh on July 11.
With an area of about 2583.48 hectares, the capacity of this coal block is 22 million metric tons per annum from open pit and 1.6 million metric tons per year from underground mining. Garepalma-2 is a coal block under Ghargonda tehsil in Raigad district. These include Chandrapur Thermal Power Station Sets No. 8 and 9 (1000 MW) with a capacity of 500 MW each, Koradi Thermal Power Plants Sets No. 8, 9 and 10 (1980 MW) with a capacity of 660 MW each and Parli Thermal Power Station Sets No. 250 and 8. The coal will be used to generate a total capacity of 3230 MW (250 MW). The project will create about 3,400 jobs.
The environmental hearing of the coal project was held in September 2019 and the forest clearance phase-1 and environmental clearance have been received and the forest clearance phase-2 is expected in the next three months. After that, the land acquisition process will start and the actual mining will start in the year 2023, according to Mahanirmiti.