Mr KC Venugopal minister of state for power informed Parliament that the 4,000 MW capacity ultra mega power projects in the country are not getting delayed due to allocation of coal blocks.

Mr Venugopal said that “There is no delay in commissioning of ultra mega power projects due to reasons attributable to problems in the allocation of coal blocks.”

For pit-head UMPPs or where the coal mines are attached to the projects, one of the pre-requisite for calling Request for Qualification is allocation of coal block by the Ministry of Coal.

And since the coal blocks are allocated even before the initiation of bidding process, the delay could not occur for want of allocation of coal blocks.

However, he said that the last date of submission of RFQs for Chhattisgarh UMPP has been extended nine times as the coal blocks of these UMPPs were categorized as NO O area by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The last date of submission of RFQ for Chhattisgarh is December 5.

(Sourced from PTI)