Concept Note - Rights and Resources Initiative

MNRE, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy report that 2 million hectares land will be required for
dedicated plantation for electricity generation through biomass and the current area is about 0.2 million
hectares so the additional land requirement is about 1.7 million hectares. For this particular sector
therefore the total land requirement will be about 5.6 million hectares.
If we look at the total figure of land requirement by major sectors or emergent sectors the energy sector
is demanding maximum area. In infrastructure we tried to cover all sectors but due to non availability of
data sets we were unable to get information about ports. We covered 3 sectors, one is the roads,
second is dam and third is special economic zones. For roads, the current area is about 1.8 million
hectares. It is calculated based on the report of road transport, and they have come out with a report,
basic road statics of India in 2011. So we have taken major roads like national highways, state highways
and district roads and then calculated based on the standards of different types of width of different
types of roads like single lane, double lane, and four lane. So the total figure comes to 1.8 million
hectare. Right now looking at the trend of road expansion, it will require additional 1.3 million hectare of
land in coming 15 years. The total area under road will be 3.1 million hectare by 2025. In dams, we
excluded the medium and minor dams. We only covered the major reservoirs. The current area is 2.9
million hectares under major reservoirs. And looking at the water demand, by 2025 in various
government documents and the growth rate of reservoir area we come to figure of 3.9 million hectare
by 2025, so the additional land requirement for reservoirs will be around 1 million hectare in the next 15
years. Similarly in special economic zones current area is about 86000 hectares and t is planned that
SEZs have to be expanded and they are targeting 1.5 lakh has of land. So SEZs will require about 60000
hectares of land. Infrastructure sector will require 2.36 million hectare of land in next 15 years.
In mining sector, we tried to categorize mining in 5 categories, coal is dealt by a separate ministry, so the
information about coal is available through a different source. Rest of the mineral related information is
taken from the Ministry of Mines records. The area under coal mining leases, currently it is 1 lakh 47
thousand hectares. We looked at the twelfth five year plan report and plans for thirteenth five year plan
report, targets for thirteenth five year plan and past performance. They are targeting that in coming 15
years we have to maintain at least 9% growth rate in coal mining sector. So at that rate coal mining will
require 5 lakh 35 thousand hectares of land that means it will require additional 3.88 lakh hectares of
land particularly for coal mining. Iron ore mining is currently undertaken in about 88000 hectares of land
major leasing is for iron ore and similarly the basis for projecting the future demand is taken from the
twelfth five year plan where they indicated that in twelfth plan and the thirteenth plan we have to
maintain a growth rate of 8.5% per annum so based on that figure it will require 3.2 lakh hectares
mining lease area for iron ore. The additional and requirement will be 2.32 lakh hectares. Bauxite mining
alumina ore is covering an area of 35000 hectares currently and the future plans target growth rate of
9% for bauxite. The future land requirement will be 1.09 lakh hectares, the additional land requirement
is about 80000 hectares. The major area covered under mining is by limestone mining. Limestone as a
major mineral and not as a minor mineral because in some cases limestone is mined out as minor
mineral so minor mineral figures are not included in this estimation. The current area under limestone
mining is about 1.5 lakh hectares and the targets for cement industry and other limestone needs, it is
projected that the growth rate will be maintained at 9-9.5% per annum. So the area requirement for
Page 26