Coal ministry approves Reliance plans for coal mining from Kerandari mines
15 Nov 2010
Reliance Power has received clearance for its plans for mining coal from its captive mines, to fire the 4,000 MW Tilaiya ultra-mega power project at Jharkhand.
With this clearance, Reliance Power has been allowed to reassign 26 MTPA of coal from the Tilaiya Ultra Mega Power Project coal blocks in Jharkhand.
The approval letter stated, ''The company will utilise 16 million tonnes per year of coal exclusively for the Tilaiya UMPP and the balance 24 million tonnes per year will be utilized or disposed of according to the conditions in the allocation letter.''
The Jharkhand plant is the third such plant under construction after Sasan and Krishnapatnam plants by the Anil Ambani Group company. The coal ministry's approval comes after the environment ministry approved the terms of reference under environment clearance on 29July.
The coal ministry approved plans to mine 40 million tonnes of coal per annum from Kerandari mines in the state's North Karanpura area. With the quantity Reliance would be able to generate 10,000 MW of electricity. The Kerandari mines would be the largest individual mine in India and third largest in the world, with geological reserves of 1,229 million tonnes.
Though the company proposed to user open-cast mining technology it would use state-of-the-art technology for both coal and overburded for the first time in the country.