Coal Min show cause notice for delayed development backfires
Thursday, 15 Oct 2009
Indian coal ministry has recently sent as many as 39 show cause notices to companies on delayed development in their coal mines. But that has backfired as some sources told CNBC-TV18 that more than half of these coal mines are old mines re allotted to these companies.
In December 2007, Rampia Coal Mine and Energy Private Limited was given a coal block in Orissa which was supposed to have reserves of 600 million tonne. Rampia Coal Mine and Energy is a joint venture company formed by 6 infrastructure companies- GMR, Reliance Energy, ArcelorMittal, Sterlite and Navbharat Power.
The coal which is supposed to come from this coal mine was suppose to fire up various power plants which are right now under construction. So, on September 23rd 2009 Coal Ministry sent this joint venture company a show cause notice saying that they have delayed their mine development to which the joint venture companies responded saying that the mine that has been allotted to them is already in possession with Mahanadi coal fields and that was allotted to them as early as 1990.
We had contacted the coal ministry and all the companies to whom this block has been allotted only GMR has responded saying that this coal ministry has allocated the coal block to the joint venture which has overlap with MCL.
When the ministry of coal was notified about the allocation they have consented to remove the detoriant and that they are expecting a response shortly on that.
