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Coal linkages of 25 power plants cancelled
| Most of the plants are located in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra |
NEW DELHI: The Union Coal Ministry on Friday cracked the whip on power companies by cancelling coal linkages of 25 captive power plants (CPPs). These plants with a combined capacity of 1,292 MW required 5.844 million tonnes of coal annually.
Despite a time lapse, these CPPs failed set up power plants in spite of having been accorded coal linkage by the Ministry, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told reporters here. Apart from this, in seven other cases appropriate directions had already been issued for signing the fuel supply agreement (FSA). In the remaining 19 cases Coal India had been asked to place their names on the websites and also send letters asking them to give a detailed project status within 15 days failing which linkage would be cancelled without any further notice, he added. Last month, the Ministry held a meeting with private and public sector companies including NTPC, SAIL, and NMDC and reviewed the progress of work on the captive coal blocks allotted to them.
The Coal Ministry has already served de-allocation notice on 14 coal properties. Most of the 25 plants that lost coal linkage were located in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, Mr. Jaiswal said.
Among the firms that were issued show-cause notices earlier include Tata Sponge, Monnet Ispat, the Adhunik Group, electricity boards of Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand, power corporations of Maharashtra and Haryana and mineral development corporations of Chhattisgarh, Assam and Meghalaya.
The Ministry has so far allotted 201 captive coal blocks with a cumulative reserve of 42 billion tonnes. The blocks are exclusively meant to cater for captive coal requirements of the allottees.
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