PANJIM: With the Supreme Court declaring that coal block allocations between 1993 and 2009 illegal, industry in Goa, which was already suffering from poor quality power, has begun fretting.
With this declaration by the Supreme court , it can be safely assumed that the plan to access power via Chattisgarh has been scuppered for a long time. For corporate’s operating in the state this has left some of them wondering what could be the future course of action.
Kirit Maganlal chairman CII saw this as a big blow to the efforts of the state to attract new investment. He said “If the coal blocks are cancelled, then major industries will give up any hope of doing business in India. There are many power dependent international companies who wouldn’t mind moving to the west where these basic problems do not exist”.
Nitin Kunkolienkar, National VP of MAIT felt it was certainly a blow to the efforts of the state to attract industries to set up base here as part of the new investment policy which was announced recently. He said “The delay in the generation of electricity from the Chattisgarh coal block once was bad and now this. We will have to see how things work out”.
Shekhar Sardessai of Kineco another local businessman however begged to differ. He said the Supreme Court had made some observations and no final decision had been made. The court he said had not passed strictures with regards to the allocation of of coal blocks by the Central government to state governments to satisfy requirements. It was he said too early and he did not really foresee any problems with regards to receiving electricity in the state.
Corporates contacted by the Herald refused to come on the record stating that the matter was sub-judice and they would not want to comment. The state government had obtained an allocation in the Gare Pelma, Sector 111 Coal Block at Chhattisgarh from the central government and signed a deal with KSK Energy Ventures Ltd which would provide a minimum of 15% ie around 270mw for the state.
This coal block which has the potential to power an 1800 mw power plant is now under the eagle’s eyes of the Supreme Court. A delay in the commencement of supply had resulted in the CM stating that he intended to look at the Kaiga nuclear plant for electricity.
