The Telegraph reported that steel and ferroalloy manufacturer Shyam Sel Ltd requires more coal than has been allotted to it by the West Bengal government for its steel plant at Jamuria in Burdwan.

The company will be able to meet only 10% of its total requirement from the Trans Damodar underground coal block allocated last year.

The group is setting up a 1.1 million tonne per annum integrated steel plant at Jamuria along with a 1,000 MW captive power plant. The INR 9,900 crore project is slated to become operational in phases with the first phase involving an investment of INR 1,500 crore.

Mr B Bhusan Agarwal vice CMD of the Shyam group of industries said that “Coal is important for the project. Although we are waiting for the complete feasibility report on mining coal from the Trans Damodar block, initial geological survey shows it will be able to provide no more than 10% of our total requirement.”

Mr Agarwal said that “We have a coal requirement of 3 million tonne per annum in the first phase. We are hoping to complete the first phase by 2013. But all that depends on the allotment of coal block to us by the state government.”

The group is procuring coal from Eastern Coalfields Ltd and Coal India Ltd and is operating at a 50% deficient coal supply.

A Shyam Sel official said the block, with limited reserves, could be mined for less than five years. The project ran into rough weather when Shyam Sel filed a writ petition with Calcutta High Court calling into question the lack of transparency on the manner in which coal blocks were allocated to competitors JSW Bengal Steel and Jai Balaji.

(Sourced from www.telegraphindia.com)