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Bhubaneswar, Feb 7: Union Coal Secretary Anil Swaroop Saturday announced the government decision to form two special purpose vehicles (SPVs) in collaboration with the state government and Railways for evacuation of coal through railways in the state.
‘‘Today we have initially decided to constitute two SPVs for evacuation of coal in Talcher and Ib valley in Jharsuguda for industrial purposes. The SPVs would be formed by the Orissa government, Railways and Mahanadi Coal Field Ltd (MCL),’’ Swaroop told media persons after meeting chief secretary GC Pati and other officials here.
He said the proposal was in the initial stages and a final decision would be taken after the Centre’s approval.
“It was witnessed that there is a nationwide problem on evacuation of coal from the production centres to the industrial sources. So, we have decided to set up railway lines in the two areas for smooth evacuation and transportation of coal,” he clarified.
MCL would be the majority shareholder with 64 per cent stake in each of the SPV. The Railways would have 26 per cent stake each and the remaining 10 per cent shareholding would be with the Orissa government, he said. Reviewing the bottlenecks of various MCL coal blocks, the Coal secretary said target has been set to enhance exploration capacity of MCL from 125 million tonne (MT) to 250 MT by 2019.
Hailing the state government’s effort to expedite coal projects in state, he said, “The progress is good and timeline has been framed for each project.”
