Coal project stutter: DVC unhappy with WB land acquisition

State-run Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) has expressed displeasure over West Bengal's land acquisition policy, as it continues efforts to procure around 3,600 acres of land for a coal mining project in Birbhum district.

According to the policy, a company has to buy land from owners through a market mechanism while the state government only acts as a facilitator in the process, DVC sources said.

"If the state government had acquired land directly for the Khagra-Joydeb coal block project, we could have avoided the delay in commissioning the mining activities. We are facing several issues to purchase a large tract of land directly from owners," a senior DVC official told PTI on condition of anonymity.

He, however, said the state government has been extending co-operation within the policy framework.

The captive coal project will help the central public sector undertaking to reduce cost, he said, adding the power producer presently buys the dry fuel from Coal India.

In FY19, the (power) 'plant availability loss' due to lack of coal till December last year was 20 per cent, a DVC document said.

"We have already appointed Khagra-Joydev Resources Pvt Limited (KJRPL) in 2017 as the mine developer and operator (MDO). We will be able to commence mining activities only when land is acquired," the official said.

A meeting between farmers at Loba village and DVC officials was held last week to fix the price, acceptable to both the parties, for the open-cast coal mine project, which was "not successful", company sources said.

Of the 5,000-odd landowners, a handful of them had participated in the meeting, they said.

"DVC had proposed Rs 14 lakh per acre in the meeting but it was rejected by the attendees," sources said.

The board of the power utility had already approved an investment of Rs 1,094 crore to develop the Khagra-Joydeb coal block which has an estimated resource of 103 million tonnes.

In addition to it, DVC has also secured the Tubed coal block in Jharkhand for captive use.

The Kolkata-headquartered company has an installed capacity of 7,200 MW of thermal and hydel power.