: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to have the process of allocating coal mines re-examined and earmark more coal blocks for auction in the non-regulated sector. The non-regulated sector comprise steel, aluminium and cement industries and their captive power plants.
Out of the 9 coal blocks of Odisha earmarked for auction so far, only one mine, Jamkhani has been earmarked for the non-regulated sector. Likewise, 10 coal blocks have been earmarked for allotment meant only for the power sector, Mr. Patnaik pointed out.
The Chief Minister said that 58 industries in Odisha have a total installed captive power generation capacity of more than 7,500 MW with an approximate annual coal requirement of more than 50 million tonnes. Of this, 13 larger industrial units with CPP’s of more than 100 MW alone account for 5,000 MW capacity, he added.
Captive requirement
“These industries will be at a great disadvantage due to non-earmarking of adequate number of coals blocks to meet their captive requirement,” Mr. Patnaik said in his letter.
“The disproportionately high extent of earmarking of the coal blocks of Odisha in the power sector would not only affect the end-user mineral based industries of the State, but also reduce the revenue benefits to the State due to reverse bidding procedure followed for the power sector,” he further said.
While Odisha has about a quarter of the country’s coal reserves, out of the revenue of more than Rs. 1 lakh crore from the coal blocks auctioned till now, the share of Odisha is expected to be less than one per cent, Mr. Patnaik said.
