BHUBANESWAR:
Again the State Government lost a coal block allocated to the Odisha Mining
Corporation (OMC). Following the
de-allocation of Utkal-D and Mandakini-B coal blocks to the OMC, it was the
turn of Baitarani West coal block under Talcher coalfields in Angul district.which
was de-allocated by the Ministry of Coal after getting the recommendations from
an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG).
The Baitarani west coal block
with reserve of 600 million tonnes had been jointly allocated in July, 2007 to
Odisha Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC), Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL)
and Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). The Coal Ministry has already informed
about the de-allocation of the coal block to all the three companies who were
proposed to set up power plant in their respective States.
The Coal Ministry has conducted
various review meetings from time to time with the representatives of the three
State PSUs to expedite the development of the coal block. On May 2, 2012, the Ministry of Coal sent a show
cause notice to the three State owned companies saying, “In the review meeting
held on January 12, 2012,
it was noticed that no serious efforts have been made by the company to develop
the coal block even after repeated assurances given by the company during the
period. It is also noticed that all the important/critical milestones such as
forest clearance, environment management plan, mining lease and land
acquisition are pending for Baitarani West coal block. The company has
repeatedly failed to keep its promises made to the Ministry and is thus
non-serious about timely development of the block”.
The IMG had gone through various
points, terms and conditions of the allocation and presentation made by the
company before giving the notice for de-allocation. As per the IMG, no progress
has been made on any of the three end-user projects to be set up in the three
States. According to the IMG, the companies didn’t clear environment clearance,
forest clearance and possession of land even though three years have lapsed
since the mining plan was approved in 2009. Even application of forest
clearance has not been made, the IMG noted.
Due to unsatisfactory progress in
development of the coal mine and end-use plants and taking into account all
factors, the Coal Ministry de-allocated the coal block after accepting the
recommendations of the IMG. The bank guarantee related to the development of
the coal block, which amounts to Rs 37.50 crore, has also been forfeited.
It may be noted that the State
has high hope on the coal block as it has received a proposal from Kerala to
tie up for setting up a 1,000 MW pit-head coal-fired power plant at the cost of
Rs 4,500- Rs 5000 crore close to the Baitarani west coal block.
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