Coal Ministry carves out 43 more coal mines for auction, seeks comments from bidders

• Out of the 43 coal mines on offer, 25 are explored, while 18 are partially explored coal mines
• The coal mines have a total tentative geological resource of 9,003.69 MT

New Delhi: The Ministry of Coal has carved out 43 more coal mines from existing mines with an intention to auction them, a notification showed. The ministry has sought suggestions and recommendations on these coal mines from prospective bidders. "All the prospective bidders who are willing to participate in the auction of coal mines are hereby informed that Ministry of Coal has uploaded details of the coal mines to be auctioned under MMDR Act along with their details on the below-provided website," said a notification on Friday. The list can be accessed here.

Coal mine auction: 25 explored mines, 18 partially explored

Out of the 43 coal mines on offer, 25 are explored, while 18 are partially explored coal mines. The 43 coal mines have a total tentative geological resource of 9,003.69 MT. "Boundary of some of the MMDR blocks has been revised either by excluding some area or splitting the blocks into two or more sub blocks or both, as per the directive of MoC for making these blocks more attractive from auction point of view. In this table, resources of the revised blocks/sub blocks however, has been tentatively estimated based on the area of revised blocks/sub blocks. For explored original blocks for which Geological report is already available, blocks/sub blocks wise separate GRs would be required for resource estimation as per prevailing standards," said the notification.

The coal blocks are spread across Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Maharashtra. Most of these coal mines have existing rail lines for evacuation of coal.

Background

The government has introduced commercial coal mining with a view to increase India's coal production. India has the world's third-largest coal reserves in the world and a limited window to utilise it. Since India's power and non-power sectors are primarily dependent on coal, the country's coal consumption is expected to be in the range of 1.3-1.5 billion tonnes (BT) by 2030, the Economic Survey 2021-22 said. And in order to meet this growing demand, the government is keen on bringing in more players and competition in the sector.

(PSU Watch– India's Business News centre that places the spotlight on PSUs, Bureaucracy, Defence and Public Policy is now on Google News. Click here to follow. Also, join PSU Watch Channel in your Telegram. You may also follow us on Twitter here and stay updated.)