The Centre on Thursday launched the second Tranche of auction for commercial coal mining offering 67 mines for sale of fossil fuel.
This is the highest number of mines on offer in a particular tranche of auction after commencement of the auction regime since 2014, the Government said in a statement.
The blocks on offer are a mix of mines with small and large reserves, coking and non-coking mines and fully and partially explored blocks spread across 6 states - Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
Launching the auction process here, Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said, looking at the past success, the government is moving towards adopting a ‘Rolling Auction’ mechanism for conducting future auctions. Coal is the first mineral resource where Rolling Auction mechanism is being implemented in which a pool of coal blocks will always remain available for auctions.
He also said that along with promoting commercial coal mining, the government is also looking at reforming the existing e-auction mechanism of Coal India Ltd (CIL) and considering clubbing different e-auction windows of CIL into one. This will help in moving towards 'One Price for One Coal Grade'.
Selling coal at market-determined prices through one e-auction window would help in simplifying the system and promoting transparency, said a statement from the Ministry of Coal.
Total 19 mines were successfully auctioned in thefirst-ever tranche of commercial coal mining auctions held last year with the premium quoted by the successful bidders ranging from 9.5 per cent to 66.75 per cent. The agreements between the Ministry of Coal and the successful bidders were signed in January this year. States will fetch around Rs. 7000 crores of revenues from these auctions considering production at peak rated capacity of 51 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA), the statement added.
(Published 25 March 2021, 20:26 IST)
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