Coal news and updates

Coal Mine Clearance Status of Companies Up for Government Review

The Coal Ministry will in the week starting June 29 hold a review meeting with companies including Adani Power, Essar Power and GMR to evaluate status of transfer of various clearances and schedule of opening of coal mines allocated to them through auction recently.

In a letter to the successful bidders, the ministry said, "It has been decided to hold a meeting under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary and Nominated Authority, Ministry of Coal, to review status of transfer of various clearances and schedule of mine opening in respect of... coal mines allocated through e-auction for power sector."

The companies which have been asked to attend the meeting are Jaiprakash Power Ventures, GMR Chhattisgarh Energy, Essar Power M P, Durgapur Projects and Adani Power.

The coal blocks allocated to these firms during recent auctions are Amelia North (in Madhya Pradesh), Sarisatolli (West Bengal), Talabira-I (Odisha), Ganeshpur (in Jharkhand), Tokisud North (Jharkhand), Trans Damodar (West Bengal) and Jitpur (Jharkhand).

The government had recently auctioned 29 coal blocks in two tranches to private companies and garnered over Rs 2 lakh crore, surpassing the Comptroller Auditor General's loss estimate of Rs 1.86 lakh crore in allotment of mines earlier without auction.

The government had earlier this month kick-started the process for auction of 10 coal blocks in the third tranche, inviting bids from companies engaged in sectors like steel, cement and captive power generation.

The mines with reserves of 858.19 million tonnes are for steel, cement as well as captive power plants.

Of the total estimated geological reserves, these mines have extractable coal of about 356.24 million tonnes and are located in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

The government had said last week that it will put on the block eight more mines after the third round of auction.

The Supreme Court in September last year had cancelled allocation of 204 coal mines to companies without auction.

source: http://profit.ndtv.com