Business Standard

Five-fold boost to captive coal production by 2012

Image

Sapna Dogra Singh New Delhi
Coal production from captive mines allotted to the private sector is set to increase five-fold over the next five years and will touch the 100-million-tonne mark by 2011-12.
 
This increase will be on the back of increasing allocation of blocks to private sector companies.
 
"The government will increase the number of captive blocks allotted every year for the private sector," HC Gupta, secretary, ministry of coal, told Business Standard.
 
As of now, 60 captive blocks, having total reserves of about 7.7 billion tonnes, have been allocated to the private sector "" 11 have been allotted to power companies, 46 to iron and steel companies and three to cement companies and others.
 
However, only 11 blocks are in production, having a total output of about 18 million tonnes. Companies which have blocks under production include Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL), Banwari Lal Agarwal (BLA), Panem (joint venture company of Punjab government and Emta group), Integrated Coal Mining Ltd (ICML) and Monnet Ispat.
 
The production from the captive blocks is, however, still a small fraction of the overall output of about 400 million tonnes of the government-owned companies "" Coal India Ltd and Singareni Collieries Ltd.
 
Another round of allocation of captive blocks is slated for later this month. The government has identified 39 blocks with mineable coal reserves of 2.8 billion tonnes, for this purpose. Of these, 17 would be for the power companies and remaining for the non-power sector, the official said.
 
The blocks, which are earmarked for power sector, are situated in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Orissa and West Bengal. Companies like Jindal Steel & Power, Tata Power, Essar, Lanco Infratech, AES Chhattisgarh Energy Pvt Ltd, CESC, GMR, Spectrum Power, GVK Power, Torrent Power have filed application for these blocks.
 
The allotment will be decided by a "screening committee" headed by coal secretary. The committee has convened a meeting with these applicants from June 20 to 23.
 
Till date, 130 coal blocks have been allotted in all to to government companies (other than Coal India and Singareni) as well as private companies.

 
 

Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel

First Published: Jun 14 2007 | 12:00 AM IST

Explore News