Kerala, Gujarat join Orissa to tap coal

The state power boards of Orissa, Kerala and Gujarat are joining hands to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV), the first of its kind in the country, to explore untapped 600 million tonne of coal reserves from Baitarani West in Orissa.

A joint sector company of three states would soon be formed for mining coal in Baitarani West, with each holding an equal stake of around 33 odd per cent.

Work on forming the joint sector company would shortly begin. Gujarat and Kerala would pay Rs 75 crore each as caution money for getting two coal blocks in Baitarani West.

The funds would shortly be deposited with the Centre.

The Ministry of Coal (MoC) recently allotted the Baitarani West block with capacities of 600 million to Orissa Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC).

The Orissa hydro utility would be using 200 million tonne, while the remaining 400 million tonne would be distributed between Kerala and Gujarat power utilities.

Orissa energy minister S N Patro has convened a meeting of Orissa Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC), Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and Gujarat Power Company (GPC) to work out the modalities.

Power ministers of Orissa, Gujarat and Kerala would be attending the meeting. Patro said, "Power ministers of Gujarat and Kerala have accepted my idea and would soon be initating steps to form the SPV." He would ask the MoC for allotment of coal blocks. Patro said, "Till date, the Centre has allotted four coal blocks at Baitarani West to state utilities, of which two have been given to Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) and one each to OHPC and Orissa Power Generating Company (OPGC)".

This apart, the Centre allotted five coal blocks to 13 independent power producers (IPPs).

Each IPP got the allocation for mining 120 million ton (MT) of coal for generating 500MW over the next 15 years.

Orissa received 33 proposals from IPPs to set up power plants in the state entailing an investment of Rs 1.64 lakh crore and generation capacity of around 32,000MW.

Orissa recently signed MoUs with 13 IPPs with a combined generating capacity of 16,800MW.Recently the Centre allotted two mega coal blocks to eight IPPs at Mandakini and Baitarani West for mining 1600 million tons of coal and generating 12000MW of power.

The Centre was expected to provide long and short term linkages to IPPs to meet coal demand.