Coal Ministry invites applications for allotting 7 coal blocks

Coal Ministry has invited applications from power generation firms for allotment of seven coal blocks, including Deocha-Pachami block in West Bengal having 2,102 million tonne (MT) reserves. "The applications are invited from. Entities in respect of the coal blocks," the Coal Ministry said.

The applications are invited for seven coal mines including Deocha-Pachami mine in West Bengal with coal reserves of 2,102 MT, Ghogarpalli in Odisha having reserves of 1,163 MT, Jadunathpur mine in Odisha with reserves of 525 MT, Pokharia Paharpur mine in Jharkhand having reserves of 584.25 MT.

The other blocks on offer are Behraband North Extn block in Madhya Pradesh having reserves of 174.87 MT and North Kathara Ph-I and Ph-II UG mine in Jharkhand with reserves of 305 MT.

The applications are invited from companies like West Bengal Power Development Ltd, Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd, Bihar State Power Generation Company Ltd, Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd and Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd.

Deocha-Pachami coal block was earlier decided to be jointly allocated to the entities of six states viz. West Bengal, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and and Tamil Nadu.

On the basis of request received from the Government of West Bengal, a meeting was held in the Coal Ministry with the JV partners of the Deocha-Pachami mine to review the progress of development of this block.

It was brought to the notice that due to joint-allocation, difficulties were being faced in operationalisation of this block. On the suggestion of various joint venture partners and in view of the requests from West Bengal government, it was decided to allocated Deocha-Pachami mine to one state and separate coal blocks to each of the other states in terms of their requirements.