The coal block was jointly allocated to Odisha Hydro Power Company Ltd (OHPC) and two PSUs of other states - Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd (GPCL) and Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) before being de-allocated on December 11 last year. The Ministry had cited unsatisfactory progress made in development of the coal mines and end-use plants for the action.
"The mining bench of HC comprising of chief justice C Nagappan and justice I Mohanty has also directed the Ministry not to encash the bank guarantee of the allocatees. The court has issued notices to all the parties", said Ashok Mohanty, Advocate General , Odisha, who appeared for the Baitarani West Coal Company Ltd (BWCCL), a joint venture company incorporated in April, 2008 with OHPC, GPCL and KSEB as the equal equity partners.
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The company was challenging the order of the Coal Ministry on de-allocation and invocation of 50 per cent bank guarantee in respect of the block.
The Baitarani West coal block was awarded for end-use power plants proposed by OHPC, GPCL and KSEB. The Coal Ministry observed that there were serious slippages in timelines of achievements of critical milestones of the coal block like submission of bank guarantee, submission of mining plan, grant of forest clearance, completion of land acquisition and grant of EMP (environment management plan) clearance.
The Ministry had de-allocated the block based on the recommendations of the inter-ministerial group (IMG) formed to oversee status of allocated coal blocks after surfacing of the coal block allocation row.
The IMG observed that Baitarani West is a fully explored block and five years have elapsed since the date of allotment (July 25, 2007). The group further noted that no progress has been made on any of the three end-use projects to be set up in Odisha, Gujarat and Kerala. Besides, no indication was given by the allocatees on expected date of start of production from the coal block even though the normative date for commencing production was January 25, 2011.
Moreover, the allocatees were yet to obtain environment and forest clearance, nor were they able to take possession of land since the approval of mining plan in 2009.