Reuters quoted Mr Naveen Jindal chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd as saying that the company has shelved USD 10 billion coal to diesel project in Odisha

Mr Jindal said that “It seems the Indian government is not keen to support his plan of converting low quality coal to 80,000 barrels per day of diesel although India is a big importer of crude oil. The project was specifically to meet the strategic needs of the country. But the government does not seem to be interested. If there is no coal block, how can the project go ahead?"

This is the first big casualty of a court decision to scrap coalfields allocated to private firms. JSPL's 1.5 billion tonne coalfield in Odisha was among 214 cancelled by the Supreme Court in September, when it ruled the practice of selective allocation was illegal and arbitrary.