The Coal Ministry is likely to begin this week the process of issuing show-cause notices to 58 captive coal block holders, including PSUs, which have not started the development work of mines in stipulated time.
“The coal ministry is likely to issue show-cause notices to 58 coal block holders, both in public and private sector, sitting idle on them this week,” a top official in the coal ministry said.
“Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal gave go-ahead to the proposal yesterday,” the official said.
The decision to issue show-cause notices to the firms sitting idle on captive coal blocks was taken by a panel looking into the development of reserves, sources said.
Concerned over the increasing demand-supply gap, the Ministry in January this year had reviewed the progress of mines allocated to companies, including Tata Steel, Coal India, SAIL and NTPC for captive use.
The progress of the blocks allocated to Jindal Power, Jindal Steel & Power, Balco and MMTC was also reviewed during the two–day meeting.
Last year, the Coal Ministry had cancelled allotment of 14 coal and one lignite block to six PSUs, including NTPC, and three private firms for failing to develop them.
However, in January, the government gave back six coal blocks of the deallocated mines to firms, including Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Ltd and NTPC.