The government on Thursday decided to relocate the Rs 10,000-crore Karanpura power plant, being set up in Jharkhand by NTPC Ltd, and laid the blueprint for faster environment clearance for two coal blocks of private power producers.

The decisions were taken by a 12-member Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The blocks, Mahan and Chhatrasal, had been hanging fire for the past two years as they fell under the “no-go” regions demarcated by the environment ministry when it was headed by Jairam Ramesh.