Govt to allocate 81 coal blocks

New Delhi, May 19 (UNI) The Government has allocated 81 additional coal blocks with reserves of about 20 billion tonnes to state-run and private companies to meet the country's soaring demand for minerals.

Addressing a meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee, minister of state for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao said 81 additional coal blocks have been identified for allocation in order to meet the coal demand, an official release said.

Dr Rao said of these, 41 blocks with reserves of 15.7 billion tonnes are earmarked for power sector.

These blocks have been further categorised in three separate lists on the basis of method of allocation like Government Company Dispensation Route (10 blocks with 6072.15 million metric tonne estimated reserves), Screening Committee Route (15 blocks with 3622.44 MMT reserves) and Tariff based Bidding as per Ministry of Power Guidelines (16 blocks with 6015.30 MMT reserves).

The remaining 40 blocks with a total reserves of 4.3 billion tonne would be considered for allocation for the non-power sector under Government Company Dispensation Route (17 blocks with estimated 1847.75 MMT reserves) and Screening Committee route (23 blocks with 2464.23 MMT reserves).

He said as many as 1422 applications have been received for 38 blocks advertised for allocation through Screening Committee. These have been forwarded to the State governments and Administrative Ministries concerned for their views/recommendations.

He said for allocation under Government Company Dispensation route about 200 applications have been received for allocation of 27 blocks. Comments on applications received for the power sector have been obtained from the Ministry of Power and the matter is under consideration for approval of the Government.

Further, the Ministry of Power has also been requested to take further action for the remaining 16 coal blocks earmarked for the power projects to be set up on the basis of tariff-based competitive bidding system.

MORE UNI