IMG reviews 56 coal blocks; suggests showcause notices

The progress of these 56 coal blocks was found to be unsatisfactory by the review committee last year

Taking ahead its crusade against firms sitting idle on coal blocks alloted to them, the Inter-Ministerial panel today reviewed the progress of 56 coal blocks of firms like JSPL and Arcelor Mittal and recommended issuing show cause notices in case of few firms.

"The 19th meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) under the Chairmanship of Additional Secretary (Coal) was held today to review the development/progress of two lignite blocks and 56 coal blocks. During the meeting, the panel suggested to issue show cause notices in a some cases" a source close to the development said.

However, the source refused to name the companies against which issuing of the show-cause notices was recommended.

The progress of these 56 coal blocks was found to unsatisfactory by the review committee last year where delays in production from the mines was attributed to the 'go/no-go' categorisation, location in wild life corridors, over-lapping of coal bearing area with CBM (Coal bed methane), among others, sources said.

After abolition of go/no-go concept, these coal blocks allocatees were advised to pursue their cases with concerned authorities for environment/forest clearances, sources added.

The IMG earlier decided that the Coal Controller's Organisation (CCO), the nodal agency for monitoring private captive coal blocks, may obtain the updated status of these cases and place it before the IMG for review.

Other firms whose coal blocks were reviewed included Rungta mines, Adani Power, NTPC, Lanco Group, JSW Steel and Jayaswal Neco.

Earlier this month the Coal Ministry issued notices to allocatees of 30 captive coal blocks, including NTPC, GVK Power and Monnet Ispat for failing to develop the blocks on time.

The decision to crackdown on allocatees, who had not developed the mines on time, was taken at a meeting of inter-ministerial group (IMG) held last month.