West Bengal is facing a toss-up between industrialisation and utilising its coal reserves. The latest case in point is a coal block allocated to a consortium comprising ACC, Uttam Galva Steels and three other Kolkata-based companies. The block happens to be in the project site of the greenfield airport city, Bengal Aerotropolis.
The state government has conveyed to the consortium, which has been allotted the Moira-Madhujore coal block with reserves of 685 million tonnes, that the top soil will have some construction. The concerned companies promptly approached the coal ministry.
Uttam Galva sources said: “We are protesting and have written to the coal ministry.” Sources in Adhunik Corporation, a part of the consortium, said a lot of the coal would be lost if the Bengal Aerotropolis project was not realigned.
“After all, that is a real estate venture and natural resources should not be sacrificed for the project. We have taken it up with the coal ministry. Let the Central government take it up with the state,” sources said.
Early last year, the airport city project being developed by Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL) — which is 26 per cent owned by Singapore’s Changi Airports International — was shrunk 400 acres and shifted eastwards to free some coal reserves of the Coal India subsidiary, Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL). The state government signed a settlement with Coal India that offset its coal reserves for the Bengal Aerotropolis project because it was infringing into ECL’s licensed area.
BAPL CEO Subrata Paul said he was unaware of the location of the Moira-Madhujore block.
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According to sources in the industry, the entire area had reserves of around 4,000 million tonnes. Coal India had highlighted this point, too. Coal India raised objections to having industrial projects in the Asansol-Durgapur belt in Bardhaman district that has been earmarked by the West Bengal government for three steel projects — Bhushan Steel, Videocon and Abhijit group — apart from BAPL, on grounds that it is coal-bearing, though not a part of its licensed area. The combined investment in the three steel projects is around Rs 49,000 crore.
The state government has maintained that the coal was at a depth where mining would be unviable. Industry observers said if the BAPL project was not shifted and the state government stuck to its ground, then it could set a precedent for future projects. Both ACC and Uttam Galva would use the coal for its projects outside Bengal.
The state’s Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Commerce and Industry Minister Nirupam Sen had met the coal minister for allotting pending coal blocks to companies that were setting up projects in Bengal. But the government has halted the process of allocation as, according to the Mines and Minerals Development & Regulation (MMDR) Act, which is being amended, coal blocks have to be auctioned.
State government sources said if the state did not have a say in the auction, then projects outside Bengal could get the blocks. “If the state wanted, it could deny surface rights,” they said, in which case it would be a re-run of the policy adopted by the Jharkhand and Orissa governments for iron ore, which ensured that value addition would have to happen in the state.