The Ministry of Coal has issued notices to Essar Power and GMR Energy to confiscate their bank guarantees worth up to Rs 900 crore following a judgment by the Delhi High Court rejecting the companies’ petition to surrender their coal blocks. The two companies had submitted these bank guarantees for the coal mines they won in an auction in 2015-16.
“We have issued the notice to invoke their bank guarantee. If they move Supreme Court in the designated time, we will withdraw the notice, else we will implement it. In any case, the companies have missed all deadlines of production. The two companies have not made a single breakthrough in the mining of these blocks,” a senior coal ministry official said.
