India's largest coal mine coming up at Birbhum: Mamata Banerjee.

Blaming the Centre for 'non- cooperation' even for development projects, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently announced setting up of a new venture to develop the country's largest coal mine in the state.

Banerjee said that a special purpose vehicle -- Bengal Birbhum Coalfields Ltd -- has been created to develop the mine at Deocha-Pachami in Birbhum district.

The block has been offered jointly to West Bengal, Bihar, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited, she added.

Deocha Pachami coal block is the largest coal block in the country with 2,102 million tonnes of coal in reserve.

Bengal would get the largest share of coal with 584 million tonnes from the block, followed by Bihar with a share of 486 million tonnes.

The SPV will develop India's largest coal mine in Deocha-Pachami by appointing a Mine Developer cum Operator.

Referring to her discussion with the Union Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal in this regard, Banerjee said, 'I have asked Piyush Goyal to give it to us for smooth functioning.'

The mine would supply coal to power plants in Bengal and other states, she said while adding that 'huge employment opportunities will be created and socio-economic infrastructure of the region will change radically, giving a boost to the economy and benefits to the people'.

'Despite Centre's non-cooperation, we have been able to carry out a large number of development programmes in the state, which no other party could be able to perform.

ET