Date | Sept 13, 2017:

The Centre will offer 10 mines for auction so as to begin the opening up coal mines for commercial mining according to an Indian Express report.

Previously under the domain of state-owned Coal India Limited (CIL), the report stated that four coal mines from Odisha— Chendipada, Chendipada-II, Mahanadi and Machhakata; four coal mines from Chhattisgarh — Shankarpur Bhatgaon II Extension, Durgapur II/Taraimar, Durgapur II/Sariya, Madanpur (North) — are the likely candidates for the first phase of the auction.

The mines of Chendipada and Machhakata have estimated extractable reserves of 1244.37 million tonnes (MT) and 474.34 MT respectively. Mines such as Shankarpur Bhatgaon II Extension and Mednirai have estimated extractable reserves of 80.14 MT and 80.832 MT respectively.

The report also quoted sources stating that the timeline for these auctions is yet to be decided.

On March 27, 2017, the Coal Ministry had published a discussion paper on the “auction of coal mines for commercial mining”.

The Express spoke to a sector expert in Delhi who said that the coal industry expressed various concerns related to the discussion paper. The Centre, therefore, is deliberating on the issues raised and taking ample time to conduct the auction for commercial mining.

The Supreme Court had passed an order on September 24, 2014 deallocating 214 mines. This prompted the Coal Ministry to begin preparations for the auction of a few of the coal mines in beginning of 2015. The Coal Mines (Special Provision) Act was passed in 2015 which gave powers to the government for the auction of mines to private companies for mining and commercial sale.

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