The Ministry put few auctioned Coal block’s operation on 2 months halt as few formalities are yet to be completed.
The Indian Coal Ministry had finished auction of 31 Coal blocks in two phases i.e. Schedule II &III on 9 March. Taking the process to the next step, ownership rights to Schedule II Block winners had been granted by the ministry on 23 Mar’15. However, production of 16 blocks will not start for at least two months.
Post auction of Schedule II, the government focused on ownership transfers to new winners. But production in all those blocks will stop for next 2 months as there are a number of formalities pending to be completed by the new owners. Until this situation is taken care of, mining in the blocks cannot be continued.
All companies that had won blocks are required to sign a fresh mining lease with the state governments and seek fresh approvals for mine operation from the Director General of Mines Safety. On the other hand, long halt for the operational coal blocks may result in fuel shortage in Steel & Power plants.
Earlier the Ministry had put few auctioned blocks on hold for proper evaluation and still waiting for final verdict of Delhi High Court. Meanwhile, the government had decided to give ownership for certain chosen blocks only.
42 out of the 204 blocks were operational at the time of cancellation. The ministry granted permission to the erstwhile holders of those 42 blocks to continue operation till 31 Mar’15. It also asked to remove their coal stocks within a period of seven calendar days i.e. till 8 Apr’15.
The Coal Ministry allotted 14 Coal blocks to power generation utilities of various states last Tuesday.
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