India to launch auction of coal mines for commercial mining on June 18

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the chief guest at the event, which will be held virtually in New Delhi

• Commercial coal mining auctions are going to be completely different from the earlier regime of restricted sectors, use and price, the Ministry of Coal said

New Delhi: The Central government is set to launch the auction of coal mines for commercial mining on June 18. The theme of the auction is 'Unleashing Coal: New Hopes for Atmanirbhar Bharat.' Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the chief guest at the event, which will be held virtually in New Delhi. "We are launching first-ever commercial coal auctions in the country on 18th June. Event will be graced by PM @NarendraModi Ji. It is his vision & guidance to make #AatmaNirbharBharat in coal. I am proud that we are well on our way to achieve it," Union Minister for Coal & Mines Pralhad Joshi said on Twitter on Thursday.

The decision to open up the coal and mining sector for private players was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last month as part of Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. The government plans to increase domestic coal production through structural reforms in the coal sector in order to cut India's dependence on imports and make it self-reliant.

How is new regime for auction of coal mines for commercial mining different?

"Commercial coal mining auctions are going to be completely different from the earlier regime of restricted sectors, use and price. Now there are no such restrictions at all. The proposed auctions have terms and conditions which are very liberal, allowing new companies to participate in the bidding process, reduced upfront amount, adjustment of upfront amount against royalty, liberal efficiency parameters to encourage flexibility to operationalise the coal mines, transparent bidding process, 100 percent FDI through automatic route allowed and reasonable financial terms and revenue sharing model based on National Coal Index. The successful bidders also will have flexibility in coal production unlike past and will have provision for incentives for early production and coal gasification," the Ministry of Coal said in an official statement.

"The coal mines auction process will lay a strong foundation for energy security in the country by producing additional coal providing large scale employment and huge opportunities for investment in coal sector. These efforts will supplement the 1 billion tonne coal production expected to come from Coal India in FY 23-24 and meet full requirement of domestic thermal coal," it added.