Controversies surrounding the allocation of coal blocks to Naveen Jindal-owned Jindal Steel and Power has put the firm’s investment proposals in Odisha, worth about Rs 80,000 crore, in jeopardy.Out of this Rs 80,000 crore, the company has already invested Rs 17,000 crore to build a two-million tonne steel capacity and a captive power plant at Angul. Five units of the power station has been commissioned. Even though the sixth unit of 135 Mw and the steel plant are almost ready, the company is not sure if it can put them on stream because of acute scarcity of raw material such as coal and iron ore. “We are not able to fully utilise the units already commissioned due to coal supply issues. We are buying coal through e-auction, which is pushing up generation cost to Rs 4 per unit, while the supply to the state grid is at Rs 2.75 to Rs 3.25 per unit. Under the circumstances, pushing the commissioning of other units will not be viable,” says a JSPL official.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 05:02:47 +0000