Power Min favours returning of surplus coal to Coal India

In the back drop of the Coal Ministry's proposed surplus coal policy, Power Ministry has said that any excess fuel mined by the private firms from the captive blocks should be returned to state-run Coal India.

Ministry of Coal is formulating the surplus coal policy to decide on the use of excess coal extracted from the coal blocks allotted to the power generation firms for their end use plant.

"We are of the view that any surplus coal mined by the companies at the allocated mines should be given back to Coal India," a Power Ministry official told PTI.

Coal Ministry has floated a draft Cabinet note over the matter and is inviting comments from concerned ministries.

According to Association of Power Producers (APP), a body representing as many as 20 electricity generation companies, the private companies have agreed to this proposal.

The Ministry of Power has also said that the two proposed coal based ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) - Bedabahal (Odisha)and Cheyyur (Tamil Nadu) - with an average capacity of 4,000 MW, will be linked to the government's surplus coal policy as and when the policy is finalised.

Recently, Tata Power, country's largest private power producer, had sought government approval for using surplus coal from the Mandakini coal mine for its Maithon thermal power project (Jharkhand) which is facing coal shortage and also the end-use plant of the Mandakini mine is yet to come up.

The surplus coal policy will be decided in consultation with various ministries including Power, Coal, Law and Environment and Forests.