New Delhi: Flagging a critical issue holding up the operationalisation of coal mines in the country, Naveen Jindal urged the Centre to set up a monitoring mechanism to tackle delays at state-level. Speaking at the launch of the 12th round of commercial coal mine auctions on Thursday, the Jindal Steel & Power Limited’s (JSPL) Chairman and a parliamentarian said that the coal mines secured by the company would have been operationalised sooner had they not been delayed at the level of states. “State governments are getting huge amounts of royalty premium on these coal blocks. But still, the attitude of some officers there, in some of the states that we work, they still feel that they are doing us a big favour and they expect big favours in return. So, we keep coming to the Coal Ministry for rescue, and they have always helped us in getting things going,” said Jindal.
“Because many of our mines, we should have been able to start them even one year before. But every place they stop you… some kind of monitoring, active monitoring in the states is needed so that they also feel pressured to do things faster,” Jindal said turning towards Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy, who was present on the stage for the launch event.
Lauding the commercial coal mine auction regime as a transparent and open policy reform for the coal mining sector, Jindal said that JSPL is aiming to reach 50-MT coal production by 2030. “The way commercial coal blocks have been auctioned in a very, very transparent manner is something really encouraging and we must give the Coal Ministry a very big hand for conducting these auctions in a very transparent and open manner. Sir, we are already producing 21 MT (Million Tonnes), next financial year, we hope to produce 30 MT and by 2030, we will produce 50 MT, with your kind support,” said Jindal.
JSPL operates three commercial coal mines with a combined capacity of 15.37 MTPA, and it has secured more coal blocks which are in the process of getting operationalised.
