Date | Feb 02, 2017:

The Centre will auction 25 coal mines in 2017–18, four of which will be reserved for commercial mining, Coal Secretary Susheel Kumar said on Thursday.

The details of the locations of the mines and the rules for the auctions will be disclosed soon, Mr. Kumar told the media.

Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar said he hoped that 250 non-coal mining areas will also be put to auction in the next financial year.

The Centre had so far held three rounds of coal mine auctions after the Supreme Court cancelled in 2014 the allotment of 204 coal blocks.

“We have allocated 25 mines to be on the block next year, 2017-18,” the Coal Secretary said. “Of these 23 are to be auctioned and two will be directly allocated.”

“Out of the 25, four have been reserved for commercial mining, where the end use is not specified. The formula and the rules are ready. The discussion paper is also ready and will be made public for comment soon,” he said.

“We hope that nearly 250 mining areas will be put to auction in coming year by the major mineral producing states,” said Balvinder Kumar.

Some of the areas would be in Karnataka, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

(Source: http://www.thehindu.com/)