By NNN-PTI,
New Delhi : Threatening to cancel coal blocks allotted for captive use, the coal ministry is set to issue show-cause notices to 40 power, steel and cement companies citing their failure to mine the reserves in a specified time.
As many as 25 companies in the list belong to the public sector while the remaining are private firms, a top coal ministry official told PTI, requesting anonymity.
“We will shortly issue show-cause notices to 40 firms which have been allotted coal blocks for captive use. They failed to develop and mine coal from the blocks in the specified time-frame,” the official said. The blocks were allocated to these firms in the last 5-7 years, he added.
The move is in line with the ministry’s strategy to weed out non-serious players “sitting on the coal blocks and allot it to the serious ones,” he said.