Coal news and updates

IMC wants allocatee states to decide on development of 3 blocks

October 30: Deliberating on the recommendations with regard to allocation of three coal blocks earmarked for mining, and which are a part of the 17 blocks identified by the Ministry of Coal (MoC), the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) has suggested that the modalities of development of the blocks should be left to the discretion of the allocatee state government.

That is, whether they would propose to form a joint venture, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) or any other form of professionally managed entity for developing and operating the respective coal mine.

The IMC further directed the respective state governments to indicate the modalities for developing the coal blocks within three months from the date of allocation.

The Brahmani coal block (58.90 mt) in Odisha has been awarded to OMDC, Gowa coal block in Jharkhand has been awarded to JSMDC (25.74 mt)and BMDC (25.74 mt) and Kerwa coal block in Chhattisgarh has been given to CMDC (56.47 mt) and MP State Mining Corporation (56.47 mt).

Earlier, the IMC's Technical Committee, after deliberating on aspects like availability of reserves, logistics for coal evacuation from the host state and the nature of the applicant companies as well as taking into consideration requests from host states, decided to let IMC take a call on the blocks, along with the proposal that the resources should be shared by the adjacent states.

In all, 41 applications had been received from 17 government companies/corporations.