Coal Ministry to conduct meet to judge progress of allotted captive mines

Amid a widening demand-supply
gap, the Coal Ministry has stepped up efforts to augment production of the dry
fuel and will hold a meeting with coal block holders next month to take stock
of the progress in development of mines allocated for captive use. 

“A meeting with the allocates
of the coal/lignite blocks has been fixed under the Chairmanship of Additional
Secretary (Coal) Zohra Chatterji on January 11 and January 12,” a Coal
Ministry source said, quoting the notice sent to coal block holders. 

During the two-day meeting,
Chatterji will examine the progress of work in allocated coal blocks and
end-use projects. 

“The purpose of the meeting
is to… seek feedback for expeditious development in both the captive coal
mining block and end-use project,” the source added.

On the first day of the two-day
meeting, the Additional Secretary will hold discussions with firms that have
been allocated blocks in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. 

The companies that have been
allotted mines in Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal will participate in the meeting on the
second day. 

Cracking down on firms sitting
idle on coal blocks allocated to them for captive use, the Coal Ministry took
back 14 coal blocks and one lignite block allotted to six PSUs, including NTPC,
and three private firms in May.