The Central government has allotted three coal blocks to JSW Bengal Steel for its 10 million tonne steel plant at Salboni in Midnapore district of West Bengal.

The coal blocks were located at Kulti, Sitarampur in West Bengal and Icchapur in Jharkhand. Kulti and Sitarampur blocks together have an estimated reserve of 300 million tonne of soft coking coal while the Icchapur block is estimated to have 110 million tonne thermal coking coal reserve.

Currently, the Geological Survey of India is carrying out the prospecting work for the blocks. JSW may face some problems in continuous mining from the blocks, as the reserves contain high methane gas and water. The company has constructed a 38 km boundary wall enclosing 4,800 acre in Salboni at an expenditure of Rs.42 crore

JSW already has got one more block at Gourandih with an estimated reserve of 110-120 million tonne thermal coal but 50 per cent of that has to be shared with Himachal EMTA. Himachal-EMTA is a joint venture between the Himachal Pradesh government and the Kolkata-based Eastern Mineral and Trading Agency.

Also See:

JSW Steel to begin site work for integrated steel project by February(13-Jan-08)

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