Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Feb 27: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Friday expressed concern over the earmarking of coal mines for auction and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to re-examine the process and earmark more coal mines for auction for the non-regulated sector comprising steel, aluminium and cement industries and their captive power plants.
“Of the nine coal blocks of Orissa earmarked for auction, only one mine, Jamkhani, has been earmarked for the non-regulated sector, while 10 coal blocks have been earmarked for allotment only for the power sector,” said Patnaik in a letter to Modi.
“I, therefore, request you to earmark more coal mines for auction for the non-regulated sector, which comprises steel, aluminium and cement industries and their captive power plants,” he said.
Patnaik said 58 industries of the state have a total installed captive power generation capacity of more than 7,500 MW with an approximate annual coal requirement of more than 50 million tones. Of this, the 13 larger industrial units with CPPs of more than 100 MW alone account for 5,000 MW capacity.
“These industries will be at a great disadvantage because of non-earmarking of adequate number of coal blocks to meet their captive requirement,” Patnaik wrote.
The disproportionately high earmarking of coal blocks of Orissa for the power sector would not only affect end-user mineral based industries of the state, but also reduce revenue benefits of the state because of the reverse bidding procedure followed for the power sector, he lamented.
“While Orissa has about a quarter of the country’s coal reserves, of the revenue of more than `1 lakh crore from the coal blocks auctioned till now, the share of Orissa is expected to be less than 1 per cent,” the Chief Minister said.
“I request you to have the process of earmarking of coal mines re-examined,” he wrote to the Prime Minister.
