Exploration to start at Mandakini B Coal Block

Mandakini B Coal Corporation Ltd. is expected to start exploration work at the site in April 2011.

The Board of Directors of MCCL has sanctioned a budget of Rs 26,315 crore for the financial year 2011-12, in order to meet the expenditure incurred during Phase I, the target for which is 25,500 meters of drilling.

The utility has claimed that development activities at the block have been hampered due to the delay in the issue of the vital prospecting license by the Government of Orissa, due to which the Central Mines Planning and Design Institute Limited was unable to start the work of exploration.

That apart, certain discrepancies had been observed in the boundaries of the Mandakini A and Mandakini B coal blocks, for which a revised location plan of the latter had to be prepared by CMPDIL, which resulted in MCCL submitting a fresh application for grant of PL. The application was technically scrutinized and approved by Tehsilder, Divisional Forest Officer and the Deputy Director.