 "Odisha industry department to review 30 land acquisition projects")
Vishal Dev, the the state industry secretary is scheduled to visit these districts on 24 and 25 April to take stock of the land acquisition process for several industries in these districts.
Though most of the land acquisition cases belong to steel, sponge iron and power plant projects, a couple of coal mines projects would also be taken into consideration during the review meeting, said a government official.
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The two coal mines include Dulang mines allotted to NTPC and Manoharpur block allotted to Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC). Both these companies have been reprimanded by the Union Ministry of Coal (MoC) in December 2013 for slow progress of the development of the mines and have been alerted that the block might be deallocated if satisfactory progress is not made soon.
In case of OPGC, the central coal ministry has said the state government undertaking must take steps to obtain prospecting license for the mine.
The MoC had allocated the Manoharpur and dip side of Manoharpur coal blocks to OPGC on July 25, 2007 to cater to its expansion plan at the site of its Ib valley power station near Jharsuguda. OPGC runs a 420 Mw plant and was adding two 660 Mw super critical units.
In order to expedite the development of Manoharpur and dip side of Manoharpur coal blocks, the MoC held review meetings from time to time. In the review meeting held in January 2012, the ministry expressed concern over the unsatisfactory progress of the coal blocks and accordingly issued an advisory letter on April 26, 2012 to expedite its development.
Later, the Inter MInisterial Group (IMG) in 2013 noted that no significant progress had been made by OPGC towards development of the coal blocks.
Similarly NTPC, which was allotted Dulang mines with a reserve of 152 million tonne for its 1600 Mw super thermal power station coming up at Darlipalli in Sundargarh district, is yet to make any headway for the project due to lack of forest clearance.
The coal block has got in-principle environment clearance in March 2012. Final green clearance is expected after receipt of Stage-I forest clearance.
The industry department has instructed the three district collectors concerned to present on the date of review to discuss about the matters that are pending at various state government departments and find ways to expedite the process. The state government has become cautious in cases related to land acquisition for coal mines after more than a half a dozen blocks have been deallocated by the MoC citing delays by state and central government departments.
The land acquisition projects which are to be reviewed are undertaken by Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), also headed by the industry secretary Dev.