Coal ministry warning follows a show cause notice issued on September 23 last year.
The Union coal ministry has threatened to de-allocate the coal block allotted to Bhusan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL) for inordinate delay by the company to develop the block. The block is located at Jamkhani in Sundergarh district of Orissa.
The ministry’s warning follows a show cause notice issued to the company on September 23 last year to explain the delay. The review committee of the ministry noted the reasons given by the steel company in response is not convincing.
Accordingly, the ministry, in a letter on June 29, has directed the company to develop the block immediately. Any further failure in this regard would lead to necessary action as per the terms and conditions of the allocation including de-allocation, it warned.
The Jamkhani coal block was allocated to the allocatee under Section 3(3) (a) (iii) of the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act-1973 vide letter no- 47011/1(13)/2001-CPAM/CA dated November 12, 2003 for supply of coal to meet the requirement of 2.6 mtpa (million tonne per annum) of coal for the company’s 0.68 mpa sponge iron plant and 135 Mw (mega watt) CPP.
In order to expedite the development of the coal block, various review meetings were held from time to time with the representatives of BPSL. The company had assured the ministry to commence coal production from March,2010.
In the review meeting held on July 20/21 last year, it was noted that no serious efforts had been made by the company to develop the coal block.
It was also found that some of the important milestones such as land acquisition and R&R (rehabilitation and resettlement) are still pending since allocation of the coal block, the ministry said.
