Coal auction: 8 blocks to go under hammer from Jan 18

The government on Thursday said the fourth round of e-auctioning of eight coal blocks will be conducted from January 18-22 next year.

The coal blocks to be put under the hammer include Brahmapuri and Suliyari in Madhya Pradesh, Bundu and Gondulpura in Jharkhand, Gondkhari and Khappa & Extn in Maharashtra and Jaganathpur A and Jaganathpur B in West Bengal. These mines together have reserves totalling 1,143.42 million tonnes (MT) and their peak rated capacity stands at 12.86 MT.

These coal blocks are to be allotted to non-regulated sectors like iron and steel, cement and captive power plants, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup told reporters here.

The last three rounds of auction have generated proceeds of more than Rs 3 lakh crore, which would be realised over 30 years by states where the mines are located.

“Commencement of sale of tender document will start from December 31 while the vesting order by the nominated authority to successful bidders will be issued by March 10,” Swarup said.

He said 34 blocks had been allocated or auctioned under Schedule II (either producing or likely to produce mines), of which, one is under litigation and seven of them have recorded over 5 million tonne output.

The rest, he said, are likely to start production “in next two to three months” as all issues including necessary clearances, stamp duty, handing over of assets etc have been resolved. Mining leases have been granted in 29 cases and remaining four will also get it soon, he said.

He also said that state run Coal India is “well on way of achieving 550 million tonne coal production target in this financial year” for the current fiscal and has crossed the 300-MT output mark this week.

This year the coal production is growing at around 9 per cent, which is the highest ever growth. 

Attributing the higher coal production to faster land acquisition and expeditious regulatory clearances, Swarup said, “More than 2,500 hectares of land have been acquired for Coal India” while 41 clearances were given by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.