Delhi seeks clearance to operate mine in MP

Amid government and the opposition hurling allegations on coal blocks' allocation, the Delhi government is waiting for necessary approval from Madhya Pradesh government to operate a coal block allotted to it seven years ago.

Amid government and the opposition hurling allegations on coal blocks' allocation, the Delhi government is waiting for necessary approval from Madhya Pradesh government to operate a coal block allotted to it seven years ago.

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The Delhi government was allotted a coal block jointly with the Haryana government in 2005.

Senior Delhi government officials said they were denied a clearance by the environment ministry as the mine was located in a forest.

While the environment ministry relaxed the restriction in January this year, the MP government has yet to issue the prospecting licence.

"We did not go ahead with the mining due to the restrictions put by the environment ministry. We did not want to invite trouble," said a senior Delhi government official.

"Though the 'no-go zone' restriction was lifted in January this year, the MP government has not issued us the prospecting licence," another official said.

The exploration of coal from the site could have helped Delhi generate more power. Sources said the coal taken out from this mine would have been used at Jhajjar power plant, which is a joint venture of Delhi, Haryana and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

Delhi has 25% share in the plant.

The plant has the generation capacity of 1500 megawatt but it only produces about 1,000 megawatt due to shortage of coal.

Sources said the plant, which was commissioned in 2010, was forced to shut down several times due to coal shortage.