Following is an excerpt from a report in Pragativadi.

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd is optimistic about commissioning the first phase of the proposed six MTPA steel mill in Orissa’s Angul district by October 2010.

… Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Jindal said that the work for the first phase of the project was progressing well.

The company had already spent Rs 4,000 crore so far for it and has placed an order for equipment for the purpose.

Of its total project cost of Rs 13,135 crore, JSPL had also spent a lot on land, construction, equipment and other activities, he said.

Jindal said JSPL has a small iron ore mine at Tensa in Keonjhar district and is hopeful of getting raw material linkage to its Angul project. 

We have been allotted coal block for the requirement of our captive power plant and the steel plant, he added.

He said that the company apprised the chief minister about the progress and made a presentation before him, while seeking the state government’s help in availing new raw material linkage early.

The JSPL which signed an MoU with the state government for setting up a beneficiation plant at Deojhar in Keonjhar district and the Angul steel plant on November 11, 2005, had progressed well besides tackling local problems, he said.

Following is an excerpt from a report in sify.com. (This report is reasonable; the tall claims about making Naraj like Jamshedpur is reported in Sambada, which is given at the end of the excerpt.)

Optimistic about completion of land acquisition for its 1,000 MW power plant near Cuttack in five months, Tata Power has allayed fears that it may cause air, water and noise pollution and said the thermal unit would adopt latest environmental safety technology.

"We expect the whole process of land acquisition for the Naraj Marthapur coal-based power project to be completed by October, this year," Project Director (eastern region) of Tata Power, Praveer Sinha said.

Maintaining that the company was for fair and just compensation for land, structures and trees, Sinha, who visited the proposed plant site with other company officials, said price for land would be settled through ‘direct win-win negotiations with sellers’.

Rates offered would be higher than benchmark rates fixed by Orissa government, Sinha and other company officials pointed out, adding most advanced technologies would be used in the Rs 5,000-crore project to minimise plant emission.

… Ruling out any adverse impact on the air quality of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar due to the plant, he said water spraying would be undertaken in coal yard area to suppress the dust, while high efficiency electrostatic precipitator would be installed for removal of fly as from the flue gas.

"All these measures would keep emission of ash and coal dust to well below the statutory norms," a senior official at Tata Power’s Jamshedpur plant said, adding flue gas would be released through 275 metre tall stack, three times taller than Qutub Minar.

Explaining the steps to check water pollution, Sinha said fly ash generated from the plant would be stored within the plant premises and it would not be dumped into Mahanadi river or Puri canal.

Fly ash, said another senior executive, would be directly utilised by the cement industry, brick manufacturing, road and pavement construction, fertilisers and for bund preparation in farms. "Therefore, the quality of water in Puri canal or Mahanadi river or Puri canal will not be affected and will not impact marine life at all," he said.

Similarly, he said waste water generated from the plant would be reused within the plant and discharge, if any, was likely to take place only during rainy season when excess water is available.

"Such water will be discharged only after treatment of effluents and its quality will comply with the applicable effluents standards," he said.

Sinha said steps would be taken to ensure that no pollutant material is discharged into the river. Ash would not pollute ground water due to impervious lining of the ash pond into which the ash would be disposed.

Ruling out noise pollution due to the power unit, company officials also made it clear that the machinery and equipment would meet all the national standards of noise limits.

Further, thick green belt would be developed around the project site to minimise the impacts of noise created by transport of coal by railways. Around two lakh trees would be planted in the green belt to absorb dust and noise.

Following is  from a report in New Indian Express.

Raijharan area of Chhendipada near here where power grade coal is available just eight feet below would soon become a major coal producing area of the state. The coal rich area called "Utkal block" has attracted both private and public sector companies to open up open cast coalmines. The block has been divided into seven parts named Utkal-A, B1, B2, C, D, E and F.

According to district official sources there are about 900 million tonne deposit in the area. This is for the first time that private coal producers are going to open up mines in the area which come under Talcher coalfield.

As per the latest in formations available, Utkal-B1 block has been allotted to Jindal Steel and Power Limited in the year 2003 as a captive coal mine while B2 block went for Monnet Ispat &Power limited in 1998. The block C has been allocated to IMFA group may 1998 while Block F came under Tata Spong Iron Limited of keonjhar in 2006.

Orisa Mining Corporation got block D while block E has been given to Nalco for captive mining in August 2004. AS regards to Utkal block A the union Coal ministry has allotted it to public sector Mahanadi Coalfield Limited and four other companies including Jindal stainless limited. The block A was earlier allotted to Kalinga Power Corporation in 1996 which was to set up a power plant at kalinga nagar.

But when the company moved away from setting up the plant there the allotment was cancelled and given to MCL and four companies . All the coal blocks except Utkal D are captive coal mines for power plants. .Utkal D though is owned by OMC will be developed and mined by a private company called Kalinga Coal mining private Limited.( KCMPL).

It is in an advanced stage other than these companies to begin production by December if all goes well. It has successfully acquired all the required land by now without any trouble.As per the records of the district office here 4 (1) notifications for all the coal producers except Nalco and Utkal have been done. Monnet Ispat and Energy which is setting up a steel and power plant along with the coal mine is acquiring private lands on direct purchase basis.

Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) which opening a captive mine is also progressing well on the acquisition matters after the meeting of its chief Navin Jindal with state chief minister Section 7(1) of its land acquisition in under progress.

As regards to the environmental clearance all but Nalco got the clearance from the union ministry of Forest and Environment. TATA also did not have the clearance but its case is different as it got the block in last year while Nalco got in 2004.

Following is an excerpt from a report in New Indian Express.

… The coal rich Angul district alone shared 8050 mw out of these projected power generation. The figure may go up if Reliance Power Limited and Lanco Power who have also evinced interest to set up power plants, go for it.

Besides, there would be another 1900 mw power generation in the district for captive purposes. The district, virtually, is slated to be the power house not only of State but also of the nation as hardly any district in India would have so much of power generation capacity when these projects would go on stream.

The independent power producers are Jindal photo (2000 mw), Mahanadi Aban Power Limited (1050 mw), Bhusan Power Limited (2000), ESSSAR Power (2000 mw), Tata Sponge (1000 mw). All these are in very infant stages.

While Mahanadi Aban and Jindal photo would get their power plants set up at Talcher, the remaining producers will have their ventures at Angul area.

Besides these, steel producers like Jindal Steel and Power Limited would set up its 900 mw of captive power plant while Monnet Ispat will go for 1000 mw of power plant at Angul.

This would be the additional capacity generation of power in the district in addition to the existing generation capacity of 4500 mw of two NTPC and one Nalco captive power plant.

While at Kaniha, NTPC has 3000 mw super thermal power plant, it has another 460 mw plant at Talcher also. Nalco also has a power plant of installed capacity of 840 mw while another 220 mw addition is under way under the expansion.

Taking into account this current capacity, the total capacity of the district in coming years would be around 14000 mw. If Reliance and Lanco come, this figure will go up further.

Most of these upcoming power producers will have their own captive coal mines. Some of them got allotment while others are waiting.

Angul district unlike others is conducive for power plants because of availabity two key infrastructural bases. These are coal and water.

… but how far the area, already extremely polluted, could sustain such power generation on such a massive scale. Environmentalists fear the Talcher and Angul area which is experiencing 50 degree Celsius in summer could be led to catastrophe unless massive forestations and anti-heating measures are not taken right now on a long term basis.

A concrete environmental management plan should and must be in place along side of these power plants, environmentalists asserted.

Following is an excerpt from a report in New Indian Express.

Ferro Alloys Corporation Limited (FACOR), one of India’s largest producers and exporters of ferro alloys, is going to expand its integrated plant at a cost of Rs 2,700 cr in Orissa.

The company has initiated an ambitious expansion plan of setting up two power plants and a Stainless Steel Plant (SSP) in Orissa for which a consultancy has also been appointed.

The FACOR group is planning to set up the power plant for its own consumption. A 45 MW coal-based captive power plant is to be set up for Bhadrak near Randia of Orissa at a cost of Rs 180 crore.

The power plant work is scheduled to be completed by 2009 for which the FACOR group has inked a financial tie-up with Rural Electrical Corporation, New Delhi.

Another 250 MW coal-based power plant and a five lakh tpa SSP are also being planned to be set up to the tune of Rs 2,500 crore at Orissa. The expansion works will be completed by 2011.

… According to Ashim, for the Rs 2,500 crore 250 MW power plant and SSP, Rs 1,700 crore would be the debt component while Rs 400 crore would come from internal sources and another Rs 400 crore raised from a partner.

“We are looking for a strategic business partner either in the form of investment or through technological support,” he said.

Following is an excerpt from a news report in Livemint.

Infrastructure company, Lanco Infratech Ltd, … plans to set up its largest power generation capacity unit at Baban, Orissa, in an attempt to meet growing demand for power in an economy that is expanding at more than 9% a year.

The plant will have a capacity of 2,640MW and will require an investment of around Rs11,000 crore, said Lagadapati Madhusudhan Rao, chairman of the Lanco Group. It will have four units of 660MW each. “We are setting up this coal-fired power project in Orissa under a special purpose vehicle (SPV), Lanco Baban Power Plant Ltd,” added Rao.

Of the 2,640MW, 25% will be sold to Orissa and the balance will be sold to other buyers through tenders. The company also plans to keep a certain portion for merchant power, Rao said. Merchant power is the term used by power companies to describe power sold in the spot market (as opposed to that sold through long-term contracts).

The company claims to have lined up nearly 75% of its fuel supply arrangements in the form of captive coal and coal linkages. While coal for 1,000MW capacity would come from Rampia coal blocks, near Baban, which was allotted recently by the government, another 660MW will come from Coal India Ltd (CIL).

“We have applied to the Union ministry of coal for additional coal for the balance power capacity. We are expecting financial closure for the project by early 2009,” said Rao.

Following are excerpts from a report on this in Business Standard.

National Aluminium Company (Nalco), the largest producer and exporter of aluminium in the country, plans to set up an aluminium park at Angul to boost consumption of the metal within the state.

Most of the aluminium produced by the public sector blue chip company, at present, is either exported or sold outside the state for further value addition. Out of the average 30,000 tonnes of aluminium produced per month by Nalco’s smelter at Angul, 28,000 tonnes are dispatched outside the state, with only 2,000 tonnes being consumed in the state.

The proposed aluminium park is expected to increase the metal consumption within the state to at least 20,000 tonnes per month, says CR Pradhan, chairman and managing director of Nalco.

He said both national and international aluminium players would be invited to set up downstream units in the proposed park to facilitate more metal sales within the state. Nalco has approached the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (IIDCO) to acquire about 1,000 acres to be handed over to it for the purpose.

Meanwhile, Nalco’s plan to set up a second smelter plant along with a captive power plant in Orissa depends on the company being allotted additional bauxite mines and coal block for the project. …

Allaying all apprehensions regarding delay in the ongoing expansion project of Nalco, both at Angul and Damanjodi facilities, he said they would be completed within stipulated time.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard on this.

Arcelor-Mittal’s proposed Rs 40,000 crore, 12 million tonne per annum greenfield steel project in Orissa has made headway with the start of the land survey at the proposed site in Patna tehsil in the Keonjher district.

While the company has launched the survey in 16 villages in the area, it has completed the process in four villages. The company has also submitted a land acquisition plan to the state government.

Meanwhile, though the company has finalised a rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) plan for the project-affected people, it is waiting for the land clearance from the state authorities to submit it to the government.

“We have our R & R proposal ready. Once the state government gives clearance of land, we will submit the proposal”, said Malay Mukherjee, member, group management board, Arcelor-Mittal.

Talking to mediapersons after a meeting on the progress of the project chaired by Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy, Mukherjee said about 70% of the detailed project report (DPR) work for the Keonjhar plant is complete. The report is expected to be finalised by June 2008, he added.

M N Dastur & Company is preparing the DPR. The scope of the DPR, among other things, includes captive mining facilities, captive power supply, water supply and other infrastructure facilities like effluent disposal, environment and township for the company?s employees. …

While the company has got a coal block along with five other companies in Rampia and dipside Rampia, it is exploring the possibility of forging partnership with a mining company to source iron ore till it is allotted captive mines. It has recently applied for a joint partnership with the state- owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) in this regard. …

While the total reserves in Rampia and dipside Rampia is estimated at about 600 million tonne, Arcelor-Mittal is expected to get about 85 million tonne.

Mukherjee said a 10-member team of Arcelor-Mittal is now finalising the technical specifications of the steel plant.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Mittal Steel India, which is in the process of readying its rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) package for its 12 million tonne Orissa project, will consider issue of shares and land-for-land as part of its compensation to land-losers.

Sanak Mishra, chief executive officer, Mittal Steel India said, “The Orissa government’s R&R policy includes issue of shares as a means of compensation and if the people want it, we will do it. But that will happen at the implementation stage and we have to see the legal standpoint and the mechanism.”

Mittal Steel hopes to finalise the draft R&R package and make presentations to the Orissa government by month end. “If the Orissa government wants to incorporate something, we will look into it.”

The state government’s policy mentions convertible preference share as a compensation option. It says that at the option of the displaced family and subject to the provisions of relevant laws in force, the project authority could issue convertible preference shares or secured bonds up to a maximum of 50 per cent out of one-time cash assistance.

“There were also other physical issues being considered like alternative land for the displaced people. We will, however, have to assess how much land is required,” said Mishra.

… After finalising the scheme in consultation with the state government, Mittal Steel plans to embark on a communication programme with the land-losers.

The project site is a mix of government and private land. The 12 million steel plant at
Keonjhar would require around 8,000 acres, which includes 1,000 acres for the captive power plant and 1,000 acres for the township.

Mittal Steel is also in dialogue with the Orissa for iron ore mines. Various options are being explored, including arrangement with the Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC), a state-owned mining corporation.

“Talks are at an exploratory stage and it was too premature to talk about it. An arrangement with OMC could enable Mittal Steel to go through captive iron ore mine allocation process, which was one of the stumbling blocks for the company’s Jharkhand project,” Mishra added. Mittal Steel requires around 600 million tonnes of iron ore over a 30-year period for its steel plant.

Following is an excerpt from New Indian Express on this.

… Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has demanded that the royalty be fixed on ad valorem basis.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Chief Minister said that the manner in which the Centre is going to revise the royalty, the State will be a loser. The State has already sustained a huge loss because of two-year delay in the revision.

He urged the Prime Minister to compensate the revenue loss of the State and delete the provision of adjusting the cess collected by the State during payment of royalty. As per the Supreme Court ruling, the collection of cess by the State for the development of the people in the mining areas is justified, he argued.

Under the new ‘hybrid formula,’ the State will get Rs 10 more per tonne of coal which is nothing given the delay in the revision of royalty, he said.

As per the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, the Centre is bound to revise royalty on coal and other minerals every three years. The Act provides that the State should be compensated accordingly for the delay in revision of royalty.

The latest revision was made on August 1 after five years, the Chief Minister reminded and urged the Prime Minister to compensate the State for the last two years.

I wonder if Naveen is referring to the supreme court judgment regarding Vedanta where the supreme court asks Vedanta to give 5% of its profits for spending towards tribal development and environmental safe guards.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Reuters.com.

Mittal Steel India Ltd, power producers Sterlite Energy Ltd, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources; Tata Power Company Ltd, Reliance Energy Ltd and two other firms will together mine a coal block in Orissa.

Mittal Steel, a part of the group that includes the world’s largest steel maker Arcelor Mittal, and power producer GVK Power Ltd have been jointly awarded a coal block in Jharkhand.

Mittal will have rights over the reserves in the two blocks equivalent to generate 750 MW power each for its proposed steel plants in the two mineral-rich states.

A report in Hindu Business line on this allocation mentions the block allocated for the UMPP in Orissa. Following is an excerpt:

The Government has also decided to facilitate the development of ultra mega power projects of about 4,000 MW capacity each under tariff based competitive bidding route using super critical technology.

Four coal blocks, with geological reserves of 1,857 million tonnes, have been allocated to two ultra mega power projects being set up in Orissa and Jharkhand. These will have generation capacity of 8,000 MW.

Daily Pioneer reporter Kahnu Nanda reports that situation is turning in favour of POSCO in the Kujang Block. The Article is reproduced below:

“Days after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik asserted that the mega greenfield steel plant by South Korean steel major Posco will be established at Kujang and that construction work would start from April 1, 2008, Posco has reiterated its commitment to the project.

An overwhelming section of people living in the proposed project site areas, including representatives of several political parties, social activists and local senior citizens, are moving fast to garner support for the project’s implementation.

Reports indicate that several meetings and campaigning has been held in project site at village level in the past week in a bid to woo the locals in the project’s favour.

Different project sympathisers have been organising these pro-Posco meetings and Ersama MLA and former Minister Damodar Rout has proposed to organise a mass public meeting in Balitutha Hat on October 27 just at a stone’s throw distance from the project opponents’ road block over Balitutha Bridge since September 24.

Sources said that a pro- Posco meeting was organised under the leadership of former PS member Jiban Lal Behera and the meeting was attended by most of habitants and discussed the Posco issues at length.

The senior villagers, attending the meeting too opined setting up of the project and unanimously resolve requesting the Posco authorities to reopen its closed Kujang office immediately.

Meanwhile, Ranjan Das a social activist and native of Polang, an affected village for the project, arranged a meeting in village on Tuesday in a move to garner support for Posco.

The Chief Minister’s endeavours to have a dialogue with project opposition groups had described a salutary effort while the villagers emphasised that the Posco authorities need to directly interact with the affected people for land acquisitions, Askhya Das, a villager revealed.

The political atmosphere in the project sites of Gadakujang, Dhinkia, Nuagaon, Chatua, Balitutha and Bamadeipur villages saw a startling incident on Tuesday when one Dhruba Charana Muduli, a social activist had called an all party meeting in Gadakujanga to discuss the Posco stalemate.

The meeting was attended by most of the members of different political parties of the locality excluding Leftists.

In the meeting a decision was taken to form an all party co ordination committee taking members from different political parties to hold dialogue with the State Government, the district administration and the Posco authorities to sort out the project obstacles, informed a member of a major political party.

Meanwhile, sources said that a similar type of meeting had been organised in Govindpur village under the leadership of Nirvay Samantray and project sympathiser Tamil Pradhan had conducted a meting in his Nuagaon village on Wednesday.

However, reports said that most of Posco supported leaders at the proposed project site villages have been organising meetings and campaigning to bring a pro attitude since the Chief Minister and Posco agreed for the project inception last week.

Ersama legislator Damodar Rout ,who was keeping distance from Posco related issues earlier has started organising mass contact campaigning with a message against anti -Posco sentiments in project site villages.

However, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) who is spearheading the anti-Posco movement since one year vowed to oppose the project tooth to nail and refused to act on the Chief Minister’s desire of a dialogue.

According to them the project would wipe out 11 villages and affect around 20,000 habitants therefore no industry should not be set up at the cost of agricultural lands that threatens to take away the livelihood of people.

Abhaya Sahoo, PPSS chairman slammed the State Government for being insensible towards the affected locals, and also threatened of not giving one inch of land for the Posco project. He blamed the local leaders for organising pro Posco meetings in their areas under the influence and getting financial supports from Posco.”

Following is an excerpt from a Business Standard report on this.

JSW Energy Ltd (JSWEL), a Sajjan Jindal group company, is planning to set up three power plants in North and Eastern India. The company also plans to foray into non-renewable energy and transmission and distribution of power.

JSW Energy, which is executing over 3000 MW of power projects, is likely to set up either coal or lignite based power plants of above 1000 MW each in Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal. It is also in the process of conducting due diligence studies on wind and solar energy-based power projects. Investments in the new projects are expected to be over Rs 15,000 crore.

Following is an excerpt on this from a report in Business Standard.

GAIL India, the country’s largest transporter and marketer of gas, will diversify from its core business to invest in a fertiliser and chemical plant at Talcher in Orissa. The gas utility will form a joint venture with government-owned Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) to set up the Rs 2,400 crore plant which will have a capacity to produce 2,940 tonne per year of urea, GAIL, CMD, UD Choubey said.

An agreement between GAIL and RCF will be signed soon, Choubey said.

“The equity structure is yet to be worked out. RCF will carry out a feasibility study on the integrated fertiliser and chemical plant,” Choubey said.

The plant will be fed with 7 million cubic metres a day (mcmd) of gas produced through the surface coal gasification process for which Coal India (CIL) will supply around 5,000 tonne of coal.

“We are in constant touch with CIL. They have in-principle agreed to supply the coal,” Choubey said.

Explaining the rationale behind diversifying into fertilisers, Choubey said that the trigger for the move was that the company wanted to increase its presence in the gas business in east India. “We have always been supplying gas to fertiliser plants. This is just a move forward,” Choubey explained.

From Arcelor-Mittal’s actions I get the feeling that they are trying to bully the Orissa government. In comparison, Vedanta has been accommodative in its land requirements for the university. But may be the bullying strategy would work for them. However, they got to be careful; if local people get more mad, and the government gets fed up with their bullying then the whole thing may fall apart.

See http://tathya.in/story.asp?sno=1185.

In the following wikimapia map the location is either to the right or left of the spot labeled as "Patna."

Following are excerpts from a report in english.chosun.com.

… After a rough start, POSCO is expected to finally have a site allocated for a planned steel mill in India, while an investment in a new Vietnam steel mill is likely to move ahead in October.

According to POSCO on Wednesday, the Indian government recently made it known that they plan to determine whether to give environmental clearance for the 4,004 acre site in Paradip in the province of Orissa.

Some 3,566 acres or 89.1 percent of the site of the planned one-stop steel system belongs to the government. Of that, 3,097 acres (86.9 percent) is forest land. For now, POSCO has only secured 193 acres (4.8 percent).

A POSCO official said, "The final decision has not yet been made, but we heard that the site might be released from the forest zone soon. The state-owned land accounts for nearly 90 percent of our site. In other words, if the area is released from the forest zone, the biggest obstacle to our effort to secure the site disappears."

Following is from a PIB.

The Minister of State for Coal Dr. Dasari Narayana Rao informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that the exploration activity has established additional resources during Xth Plan period in several coalfields including Orissa and West Bengal. Giving details, he said during the period January, 2006 to March, 2007, 4080 million tonnes of new coal resources have been estimated in the country. As a result the inventory of Geological Resources of Coal in India, prepared by Geological Survey of India (GSI) has increased by 4080 mt as indicated below:

Dr. Rao further informed that out of the total addition of coal resources mentioned above 520 million tonnes have been estimated in the state of West Bengal and 1234 million tonnes in the state of Orissa.

The state-wise and coalfield-wise details of estimation of additional coal resources in blocks where exploration has been concluded during the period from January, 2006 to March, 2007 are given as under:-

The Minister added that based on the potential of the blocks revealed from regional exploration data the detailed exploration is under process in different blocks/areas.

Following are excerpts from a Telegraph report.

Chambal Infrastructure Ventures Limited — of the KK Birla group — today expressed interest in setting up a 2,000MW thermal power plant at an estimated cost of Rs 9,000 crore.

H.S. Bawa, the managing director of Zuari Industries and senior vice-president of Chambal Fertiliser and Chemicals Limited, made a presentation before chief minister Naveen Patnaik this evening regarding the matter. Bawa expressed the multinational’s interest in the project.

In fact, the firm has already applied for 2,000 acre near Siaria in Dhenkanal.

… It had also offered to set up a thermal power plant in a joint venture with PSUs.

The proposal’s appraisal would be made by the state-run Industrial Promotion and Investment Limited, which is a nodal agency for industrial projects.

In turn the agency examines projects before they are referred to a single window clearance committee, which is headed by the chief minister himself.

Meanwhile, the company has applied to the coal ministry for blocks. It has also applied to the water resources department to seek permission to use river water for plants.

If the proposal is cleared by the government, Chambal Infrastructure Venture Limited will be the 14th company to sign an MoU with Orissa government to set up a thermal power plant in Orissa.

Already 13 power companies have signed MoUs for setting up plants with a total capacity of 16,000MW and for am investment of Rs 70,000 crore.

Many have already acquired land and obtained environment clearance, as well as, permission for industrial water use.

Two to three firms have also been allotted coal blocks, Patro added.

Construction of power plants proposed to be set up by Vedanta Power Limited has already started in Jharsuguda.

Following is an excerpt from a Hindu report.

The Central Government has given a coal block in Naini area of Orissa to the Union Territory of Puducherry to mine coal and produce electricity.

… the coal block approximately had 250 million tonnes of coal, which would last for 40 years.