Coal Companies Urged To Quicken Imports

There were warnings today that India's power generation industry may be hit if companies do not import coal expeditiously.

The warning came from the country's Minister of State for Coal, Mr Santosh Bagrodia, who suggested that blame for any power shortages "must be on the power ministry and the power companies for not co-operating and not importing coal.”

Mr Bagrodia remakrs came at a gathering of stakeholders in the coal industry. He said no power company has approached Coal India Ltd on its offer to import 4 million tonnes of coal in the current financial year. Mr Bagrodia added that the Ministry has started issuing de-allocation notices to firms that have not commenced production according to the timeline. “Out of 200 blocks allocated in last 10-12 years, hardly 20-22 have commenced production,” Mr Bagrodia said in the meeting.

The Coal Ministry has already issued show-cause notices to public and private sector companies such as Monnet Ispat, Adhunik Group, Haryana Power Corporation and NCT Delhi for de-allocation of captive coal blocks.

Mr Bagrodia also said that in the new round of allocations, those companies that have met their deadlines are likely to be “given preference”. Not ruling out the possibility of de-allocating the coal blocks of NTPC, Mr Bagrodia said “the judgment has to be done irrespective of public or private sector companies”.

NTPC has been allocated six captive blocks since 2004 with estimated reserves of about 4 billion tonnes, which it says is in the process of developing.

Source: The Hindu