Don’t change end-use purpose of coal blocks: JSPL

Bhubaneswar, Dec 27:  Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) chairman Naveen Jindal Saturday said the end-use norms of coal blocks should not be changed during their e-auction and urged the Odisha government to take up the matter with the Centre.

“The centre has decided to allocate eight of the nine coal blocks in Odisha under e-auction for the power plants and only one block is for steel, captive and aluminium sectors. Earlier, one coal block was reserved for power sector. The change of end-use plan will affect our plant,” said Jindal after meeting Chief Secretary G.C. Pati and steel secretary R.K. Sharma here.

“We have already invested about Rs.21,000 crore in our steel plant at Angul on the basis of Utkal B1 block allocated to us. We want that the end-use projects of the coal block should not be changed, otherwise investments made at the steel plant will be sick,” said Jindal.

JSPL is developing a six-million tonne per annum (mtpa) steel plant at Angul. While it has commissioned two mtpa steel plant, the company needs 13 mtpa iron ore annually to run the additional four mtpa steel plant. The company produces steel by utilizing gas synthesised from coal. With the change in end-use conditions, JSPL will not be in a position to bid for the Utkal B1 block which is about five kilometers away from its steel plant in Angul.

“I hope the Odisha government would take up the matter with centre so that we can bid for a coal block for our steel plant,” the JSPL chairman said.

Utkal B1 coal block, with an extractable coal reserve of 150 million tonne is among the 214 blocks cancelled by the Supreme Court in September. JSPL is claiming having invested about Rs. 300 crore in developing the block. (IANS)