Monday, April 04,
Coal Ministry is to award 58 coal blocks with over 18,600 million MT of reserves to private & public players through competitive bidding in next 6 months.*
The blocks lie in the coal belts of seven states, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, a top government official said.
Some of the big blocks that could be put on auction are Deocha-Pachami in West Bengal that has reserves of 2,000 million tonne, Tentuloi in Orissa that has 1,200 million tonne, Badam Dip Side and Dip Side of Rhone-Rautpara in Jharkhand with 1,000-1,500 million tonne of coal reserves.
“All these blocks are unexplored and their profiling has to be done. The regulatory clearances for many of these are also pending. We have decided that captive coal blocks to private companies would be given only through competitive bidding, but if need be some of these blocks can also be given to government companies under the government dispensation route,” the official said.
Parliament had last year approved amendment to Mines and Minerals Regulation and Development Act of 1957 to enable the government to auction coal blocks.
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