Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday urged Union Coal Minister Piyush Goyal to cancel the Tentuloi coal block and allocate Chhendipada and Chhendipada coal block-II in favour of the State-run Odisha Thermal Power Corporation ltd (OPTCl).
In a letter to Goyal, the Chief Minister said the OTPCl, a joint venture company of two State PSUs is establishing a 3200-MW coal-based Super Critical Thermal Power Plant at Kamakshanagar in Dhenkanal District. All statutory clearances have been obtained except the environment clearance which is pending.
“The Tentuloi coal block was allocated to the OTPCl as there was no other alternative available at that point of time. The cost of extracting coal from this deep cast mine will be prohibitively high for which the Coal Ministry has been requested several times for cancellation of the same. The project authorities had applied for allocation of two coal blocks, Chhendipada and Chhendipada-II. These blocks have not been allocated to anyone so far. Hence cancel the Tenuli coal block and allocate these to coal blocks to the OPTCl,” Patnaik urged.
Patnaik too mentioned that the OPTCl would meet power demand of the State to a greater extent when demand for power is growing rapidly due to increased coverage of households and higher consumption.
