Sixth tranche: 27 coal blocks from Odisha are on offer

Union Minister of Coal, Mines, and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi chaired a review meeting with the Chief Managing Director (CMD) of the Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL), officials of Ministry of Coal and Odisha government, and said that the government is offering 27 coal blocks from Odisha in the ongoing sixth tranche of commercial coal mines auctions. During the review meeting, he urged scaling up offtake to match coal production. “Emphasised optimising the use of facilities at Paradip Port for coal transportation. The port has spare capacity to the tune of 30 MTPA (28 Rakes) which thermal power plants can gainfully utilise. Also urged on scaling up offtake to match coal production,” he added in a tweet. Earlier on December 25, during the recent Parliamentary session, Pralhad Joshi informed that the demand for coal in India will continue and is likely to peak between 2030-2035. In 2022-23 (April-October), the coal consumption in coal-based power plants increased to 447.6 million tonne (MT) as compared to 398.2 million tonne during the same period of last year with a growth of 12 per cent, the minister said in a written reply. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy plans to achieve about 50 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. So far, a total of 172.72 GW of capacity from non-fossil fuel sources has been installed in the country as of October, which includes119.09 GW RE (includes Solar 61.63 GW, Wind 41.84 GW, SHP 4.92 GW and Bio-Power 10.70 GW), 46.85 GW Large Hydro and 6.78 GW Nuclear Power capacity. Also Read Smart World lines up for 3 Gurugram housing projects Godrej Properties acquires 9-acre land in Gurugram for housing project