The ongoing as well as future auctioning of coal blocks is expected to fetch Jharkhand revenue in tune of Rs14,000 crore and above in next 30 years. This would include the State’s share and royalty coming to it.
Informing this on Monday, Union Coal Secretary Anil Swarup said that coal bearing States like Jharkhand and others would be the biggest beneficiaries of the e-auction process.
“States like Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand are going to gain the most as most of the coal blocks under hammer are located here. Jharkhand alone would be getting revenue over Rs14,000 crore in the next 30 years through auctioning. Royalty coming to the States would also be in tune of Rs12,000 crore,” said Swarup who is touring the State.
E-auctioning for 18 mines out of 42 has ended on Sunday and the Centre has fetched over about Rs1 lakh crore out of the auctioned mines. Overall auctioning is expected to take the figure up to Rs1.5 lakh crore.
The Coal Ministry has resorted to open bidding process after the Supreme Court cancelled allocations made for 204 coal blocks while allowed 42 others to continue operation till March 31 this year.
The 42 blocks were under operation when the SC found conclusively that allocations were made fraudulently but to ensure supply of the mineral for various purposes the ad-hoc continuation was allowed. Presently these 42 coal blocks are undergoing auction and two of those are located in Jharkhand.