Coal news and updates

Monnet left with no option other than to participate in coal block e-auction

January 1: Monnet Ispat & Energy Limited (MIEL), will participate in the coal block e-auction to keep their already existing projects and soon-to-be operational projects uninterrupted, said Amitabh S. Mudgal, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Corporate Affairs to ICMW.

According to information available with ICMW, the company was allotted a total of five captive blocks since 1996, but all the blocks now stand de-allocated following an order by Supreme Court, which had termed the allocation of all the 218 blocks to various companies since 1993 as illegal.

Gare-Palma-IV/5 in Chhattisgarh and Utkal-B2 block in Odisha were allotted for its sponge iron plants in 1996 and 1999 respectively. Gare-Palma is already a coal producing mine whereas production from Utkal – B2 was scheduled to start soon.

Another block, Madakini, in Odisha was allotted to the company in 2008 for its power plant and Rajgamar Dipside (South of Phulakdih) block in Chhattisgarh was jointly allotted to the company for its steel plant in 2009.

Urtan (North) block in Madhya Pradesh too was allotted to the company in 2009 for its sponge iron plant.

“We are left with no other option than to participate in the e-auction as our plants and other facilities, based on these blocks, have already been set up and are operational or will be soon in operation,” he said.

MIEL has invested more than Rs 500 Crore in the development of coal blocks and allied infrastructure and has setup steel/sponge iron plant with an investment of about Rs 7,500 crores in Chhattisgarh which is operational and more than Rs 5,000 crores in 1,050 MW independent power plant in Odisha which is  expected to be commissioned  by March 2015.

“We will definitely participate in the proposed auction and will try to participate for the same blocks as a preference,” he added.

Incidentally, the Ministry of Coal has already initiated the first batch of e-auction of blocks on December 25, 2014.