Government to put 8 coal mines on block post 3rd round of auction

NEW DELHI: The government will put on the block eight more mines after 10 mines are auctioned in the third phase, for which the process has already begun, a top official said on Wednesday.

"After these 10 mines (to be auctioned in third round in August), eight more mines are in the queue," coal secretary Anil Swarup told reporters here on the sidelines of minerals and metals conference.

He said that it is likely that within a month they "have more and more mines coming in so that they would suffice for other sectors also."

Swarup said that keeping in mind plans to ramp up country's coal production to 1.5 billion tonnes by 2020, there is a plan for hiring manpower to mine the blocks.

"As far as 1.5 billion tonnes of production is concerned we have a full-fledged HR (human resource) plan of having manpower to mine these mines," he said.

The coal ministry had earlier this month kick started the process to auction 10 coal blocks in the third tranche, inviting bids from companies engaged in sectors like steel, cement and captive power generation.

"The government of India has directed the nominated authority to undertake the auction of 10 identified schedule II & III coal mines to eligible companies. Accordingly, bids are invited ... from eligible companies for shortlisting of qualified bidders," the coal ministry had said in a notice inviting tender.

Government had earlier said that it would auction 10 coal mines with reserves of 858.19 million tonnes for steel, cement as well as captive power plants and the process will be completed by August-end.

The government has so far auctioned 29 coal blocks in two tranches to private companies and garnered over Rs 2 lakh crore, surpassing CAG's loss estimates of Rs 1.86 lakh crore in allotment of mines earlier without auction.

Of the total estimated geological reserves, these mines have extractable coal of about 356.245 million tonnes and are located in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

The third round of auction will take place between August 11-17.

Swarup had earlier said that the government would execute agreements with successful bidders by August 31 and "so the process by and large will be completed by August 31".