WB CPI(M) demands judicial inquiry in tendering process of Deocha Pachami coal project

Alleging breach of tender guidelines and violations of the allotment agreement concerning the Deocha-Pachami-Dewanganj-Harisingha (DPDH) coal mining project, Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Secretary Mohammad Salim on Thursday (July 3, 2025) sought a judicial inquiry in the matter.

The CPI(M) leader claimed that the coal mining project was a “big scam” and demanded that the implementation of the project be halted till the allegations are probed.

Mr. Salim said that in March 2024, a private company called Trancemarine and Confreight Logistics Private Limited was selected as the mine developer and operator (MDO) for basalt mining through West Bengal Power Development Corporation’s (WBPDCL’s) tendering process but later the company was acquired by a “giant corporation called Himadri Speciality Chemical Ltd” in April 2025.

“An acquisition or ownership change of the selected company violates WBPDCL’s tender conditions and hints at deep corruption in the DPDH project… Basalt mining alone will lead to profits of ₹5000 crores. Trancemarine, and now its new owners, Himadri, will also be entitled to a big chunk of that profit,” the CPI(M) leader told journalists.

The CPI(M) State secretary alleged that leaders of the ruling dispensation are also set to profit off the purported acquisition due to their alleged links to “Himadri Speciality Chemical”. “The government is in cahoots with private players to line its own pockets,” he said.

Alleging lack of transparency or accountability in its operations of the mega coal mining project the CPI(M) leader the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre of being a “silent enabler of Trinamool’s corruption.”

“Firstly, why is a power development corporation issuing tenders for a basalt mining project? The WBPDCL was supposed to prepare and submit a geological report and a mining plan to the Union Ministry of Coal within 21 months of the allotment agreement. It has been 66 months since then. Till today, no such report or plan has been submitted,” Mr Salim alleged at a press conference in the party’s headquarters at Kolkata’s Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan.

Mr. Salim accused the Trinamool government of “deliberately miscategorising the project as a small 12-acre mine to bypass the need for environmental clearances and public hearings”.

The DPDH coal mining project, located in Birbhum’s Mohammad Bazar block and allocated to the WBPDCL, started operations in a 12-acre area after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s announcement at the Bengal Global Business Summit on February 6 this year.

Ms Banerjee had claimed earlier this year that DPDH is the largest coal block in India and the second-largest coal block in the world, with estimated reserves of about 1,240 million tonnes (MT) of coal and 675 MT of basalt.

Meanwhile, WBPDCL authorities had earlier said that the project area spans a total of 3540 acres, and the basalt has to be extracted first from the top of the coal, which lies at a considerable depth of 300 metres to 1,000 metres.

Notably, there were prolonged and continuing protests by local activists and residents against the DPDH coal project, over allegations of displacement of the indigenous people and “violations of rights of the tribals to water, forest and land codified in the Forest Rights Act, 2006”. 

In April this year, in a hearing of a petition concerning the DPDH coal mining project, the Calcutta High Court had directed the West Bengal government and the WBPDCL to file affidavits.