The ambitious dreams of the government in the Indian state of Orissa to set up 73 new industries in steel, power and cement sectors may not be realised if the Centre does not supply another 5000 tonnes of coal immediately. There is an estimated shortfall of about 100 tonnes to meet the requirements of industries in the coming days.
The state government on Tuesday accused the Centre for allotting Orissa very little coal to use even though it has the second largest coal deposit in India. The state has been allotted with only 7.67 per cent of the total allotted quantity for commercial use, while states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal have been allotted over 19 per cent of the total allotted quantity for each state. Orissa has coal reserves of 61.999 billion tonnes about 24.29 per cent of the country.
"Orissa has always been neglected by the Centre on allotment of coal reserves, despite having huge deposits. We had earlier pressed the demand for more coal blocks to the Centre, but nothing happened. We would again submit our demand for allotment of 5,000 tonnes coal blocks immediately," minister of industries (steel and mines) Raghunath Mohanty said. He was speaking at Coalnex, a conference on future coal needs of the state, jointly organized by Orissa chapter of CII and department of steel and mines.
State secretary for steel and mines Ashok Dalwai said, "The state will have an estimated additional requirement of non-coking coal for the proposed plants at 210 MTPA. While the 21 power projects will require 140 MTPA, 70 MTPA will be required for sponge iron-based steel projects. Considering the 50 per cent additional requirement of coal to be met partly by MCL and partly from captive coal-blocks, the shortfall is still estimated to be more than 100 MTPA." He said that other state government units have been allotted with 29.39 per cent of the total allotted coal reserves from the coalfields of Orissa, whereas the Orissa government units have been allotted only 16.10 per cent of the total coal reserve in Orissa Coalfields.
He added that the Centre has not only allotted very few coal blocks to Orissa, the quality of blocks are also poor and with several deficiencies.
Source: Times Of India
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