Coal India creates Rs 35,000 cr war-chest for acquisitions

He said Rs 2,490.94 crore will be invested in new projects and another Rs 7,039.38 crore in non-mining sector projects.

“CIL has proposed an ad-hoc provision of Rs 35,000 crore for acquisition and development of coal assets abroad during the XIIth Plan period,” he said.

“Out of the aforesaid amount,Rs 10,000 crore has been allotted for exploration and development of two allotted coal blocks and creation of logistic infrastructure in Mozambique and the balance Rs 25,000 crore has been kpt for acquisition and development of coal blocks in other countries like South Africa,Indonesia,Australia,USA and Columbia,” he said.

The minister said exploration activities are in progress in the allotted two coal blocks in Mozambique.

“Further,CIL has issued a notice on February 27 inviting proposal from investment bankers,owners/representatives for acquisition of coal assets abroad,” he said.

Jaiswal said domestic coal production is not enough to meet requirement of power plants and pooling or averaging out the price of domestic coal with costlier imported fuel to get a uniform and affordable price of coal was being considered.

On coal-block allocation scam,he said governments since 1993 have allocated coal blocks to private companies as they realised CIL would not be enough to meet the rising energy needs of the country.

While 20-25 per cent of the coal mines allocated have shown good results,the remaining have lagged because due to varierty of reasons including problems in getting forest and environment clearance,land acquisition and law and order problems,he said.

“CBI in inquiring (into the allocations made). FIR has been registered. We should wait for CBI report. If a scam has occured in the allocation,it will come out. And if any person is responsible,he will be put behind the bars,” he said.

Coal produced in India,he said,is not of good quality,having a lot of ash content. CIL is setting up 19 washeries to clean coal and improve their quality.