JSPL scraps Rs 77, 450 cr CTL project in Odisha
Odisha Sun Times Bureau
RELATED
Bhubaneswar, Nov 24:
Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) on Monday confirmed media reports that have been doing the rounds for some time now that it has scrapped its ambitious Rs 77, 450 crore coal-to-liquid (CTL) project in Odisha’s Angul district.
“The CTL project was linked to the coal block. If the coal block is gone, then the project is gone,” JSPL Chairman Naveen Jindal told PTI in New Delhi.
The closure was the direct fall-out of the cancellation of 214 coal blocks allocated to various companies by the Union government since 1993 by the Supreme Court, which termed the alolocation “fatally flawed”.
The Ramchandi Promotional coal block, with an estimated reserve of 1,500 million tonnes. was among the 214 coal blocks that were scrapped. It was allotted to JSPL on February 27, 2009 for its CTL project that was supposed to produce 80,000 barrels of crude per day using technology developed by German firm Lurgi. A 1,350 MW power plant was also part of the project.
The proposed CTL plant site was selected keeping in mind availability of land and water, rail and road connectivity, located around 70 km from the Ramchandi Promotional Block.
The auction of the de-allocated coal blocks would begin on February 11 and it reamins to be seen if JSPL would bid for fresh coal blocks in an effort to revive the CTL project.
Comments are closed.