Following a technical examination of the bids filed for commercial coal mining, the coal ministry held forward electronic auctions for 10 coal mines. The online auction for eight coal mines was held on September 13 and the sale for the final two coal mines was held on September 18. The overall peak rate capacity of the mines up for auction has been calculated at 39.31 million tonnes (mt) annually, according to a statement from the coal ministry.
To increase the nation’s coal production, the Union government began commercial coal block auctions on a revenue-sharing basis. The Mineral Concession Rules of 1960 have been modified to permit the selling of extra coal. This was done with the intention of allowing the lessee of a captive mine to sell coal or lignite in exchange for paying a higher sum to the state government.
After fulfilling the requirements of the end-use plant connected to the mine, the lessee is permitted to sell up to 50% of the total production from the captive mine in a fiscal year on the open market. Both the public and private sectors can use these captive mines.
The next tranche of the electronic auction would be opened for the mines where no bids or only one offer was received in the previous tranche of the auction in order to speed up the process of conducting the auction and to carry out more rounds of auctions. A single-window clearance system has been introduced to hasten the operationalization of coal mines through the unified platform, which would process numerous clearances and grants in addition to required application formats.
