Tenughat Vidyut Nigam (TVNL) and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) have asked the government to reconsider its decision to deallocate the Gondulpara coal block jointly allocated to them in Jharkhand as the mine falls in a "no-go" zone.
The development comes in the backdrop of the Coal Ministry last month deciding to cancel the allotment of 14 coal blocks and one lignite block to six PSUs, including TVNL and DVC, over their failure to develop the mines.
"TVNL and DVC wrote a letter to the Coal Ministry last week and requested it to reconsider its decision of deallocation of Gondulpara coal block," sources in the Coal Ministry said.
The coal mine was allocated in 2006 to TVNL as a leader and DVC as an associate to meet the coal requirement for their joint venture power project.
The ministry had in October last month issued a notice to both firms asking them to explain why the coal blocks allocated should not be withdrawn over their failure to develop the reserves within the stipulated time.
Under its deallocation drive, the Coal Ministry has this year cancelled coal blocks of various firms, including five mines of National Thermal Power Corporation and three blocks of Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation.
Other firms that were sent deallocation letters by the Coal Ministry include Bhatia International, Shree Bhaidyanath Ayurved Bhavan, Jharkhand State Electricity Board, Damodar Valley Corporation and Gondwana Ispat, among others.
To weed out non-serious players, the government had last year issued notices to 84 coal and four lignite block allocatees for not developing the same within the stipulated time and sought an explanation as to why the rights to the blocks should not be cancelled.