By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 24, 2015

The public sector aluminium major National Aluminium Company (Nalco) is likely to be reallocated Utkal E Coal block following a strong recommendation by a Parliamentary Committee on Friday.

The Committee has asked the government to consider allocation of Utkal E-coal block saying, ‘it is crucial for the Company’s expansion plans”.

“The committee feels that allocation of Utkal-E coal block for Nalco is very crucial for the company in carrying out its expansion plans,” Standing Committee on Coal and Steel chaired by Rakesh Singh said in a report.

The Supreme Court on September 24 last year had deallocated 214 coal blocks including the Utkal E coal block allocated to Nalco.

The blue chip PSU, which was earlier weighing filig a review petition for the block, is now exploring options of getting it back on the provisions of the recently passed Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) [MMDR] Act, which empowers the government to allocate coal blocks to PSUs.

“The company has already sent a formal communication to the government in this regard,” the report said.

Nalco had a plan outlay of Rs 1,181.02 crore at BE (budgetary estimates) 2014-15 which was reduced to Rs 400.38 crore at RE (revised estimate) stage, the report further said.

For 2015-16, it added that the outlay has been Rs 1,142.21 crore, mainly for development of greenfield projects and expansion plans of the company like captive coal mine Utkal E coal block, among others.

Nalco has achieved several milestones for developing the coal block and has completed 60-70 per cent land acquisition for the project.

Even as the coal block was allocated to Nalco in 2004 to meet the coal requirement of its captive power plant at Angul, work on the project got delayed by four years due to delay in clearance to the forest diversion plan of the company. “Some of the problems for which the project got delayed were beyond our control,” Nalco chairman and managing director Anshuman Das said.