CIL identifies block for coal-to-liquid foray

State-owned Coal India has identified Deocha-Pachami block at Bankura district in West Bengal for its proposed foray into coal-to-liquid (CTL) project.

"We had pinpointed the block for CTL project", Coal India chairman Partha Bhattacharya said here.

He said that the block has a very good overburden of high quality rocks, which were saleable and exportable, he told reporters at a seminar here yesterday.

Bhattacharya said that the block had a huge reserve of 19 billion tonnes, which could be exploited for burning coal to form oil.

He said that the projected investment would be around Rs 45,000 crore which might be funded through a joint venture.

According to him, SASOL and Lurgi were the two companies having the CTL technology.

He said that setting up a CTL project would help the country to insulate itself from the volatility of internal crude prices.

Bhattacharya said that increasing production of coal was important to drive India's power sector.

Coal minister Prakash Jaiswal said that the he had urged the chief ministers of concerned states not to allow any big projects in coal-bearing regions.