Press Trust of India
New Delhi: The Coal Ministry has canceled the allocation of two coking coal blocks, having reserves of about 500 million tonne, in Jharkhand to state-run Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL).
"A decision to take back both the blocks was taken based on a letter from the Ministry of Steel which said RINL has difficulties in developing the block, which it found economically unviable," a Coal Ministry source told PTI.
As per the Steel Ministry, not only coal seam was deep- seated and the area has gaseous deposits but had obstructions like railway line and river flowing near it, the source said.
RINL was looking at swapping the twin blocks Mahal and Tenughat-Jhirki, allocated to it in 2005 and 2008 respectively, citing difficulties in developing the mines.
The Mahal block has a deposit of 258 million tonne of coking coal while the Tenughat-Jhirki has an estimated deposit of 215 million tonne.
"Since there is no policy in the Coal Ministry for the alternative coal blocks, the blocks were taken back," the source said.
He added that both the blocks involved high investment and production cost and moreover RINL had not met the milestones fixed for developing the blocks.
When contacted, RINL Chairman and Managing Director P K Bishnoi said the company has so far not received any such information from the Coal Ministry regarding de-allocation of the blocks.
He, however, added that RINL had requested the Steel Ministry to take up the issue with the Coal Ministry as the blocks were not economically viable.
"The coal seam in the blocks are situated at the depth of 300 meters to 1,200 metres. Besides a river is also flowing near it," Bishnoi said adding that under the circumstances the company wanted some other blocks.
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