SHILLONG: The committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to assess the quantity of extracted coal has submitted its report recently.
Informing this on Sunday, a government official said the committee has quantified around 9 million metric tons of coal both in quarries and coal depots after NGT imposed a ban on rat-hole mining through an interim order on April 17.
The official source, however, added that the order to transport the extracted coal is unlikely to be made by NGT before August 1 which is the next date to hear the appeals against the ban on coal mining.
The committee was constituted as per the order of NGT which had its hearing in Shillong on June 9.
NGT will permit the transportation of extracted coal lying near the mines only for a period of three months and it would consider extending the period or passing of such other directions at a subsequent stage.
The members of the committee include State Director of Mines, Member Secretary, Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board, Member Secretary, Assam State Pollution Control Board, senior Scientist of the Central Pollution Control Board, senior representative of Ministry of Environment and Forests, and Principal Secretary, Mining and Geology department.
The committee was entrusted with the task of carrying out ) inspection of all the mining sites in Meghalaya to quantify the extracted coal and their location.
The committee will also prescribe the mode of transportation of the extracted coal taking into account the safety of the transporters and the general public, besides taking care of environmental concerns.
The committee will also fix two check-points en route transportation of the extracted coal from the point of loading to the point of destination. In addition, there will be an exclusively devoted check point at the borders of Bangladesh and Assam. Both the government and the coal miners will have to maintain records while transporting coal as per the order of NGT.
According to NGT, the authorities will ensure that the trucks carrying or transporting coal are not overloaded. The transportation should be done in a scientific way and the trucks should be fully covered to ensure that coal dust do not cause pollution.
The state government and all its authorities will have to fix weighing machines at all exit points from Meghalaya, particularly towards Assam and Bangladesh.