Government is looking to give away 112 mines in the second phase of its ambitious e-auction of deallocated coal mines once the first phase consisting of auctioning off as well as allotment of 92 blocks gets completed by March 2015. For this purpose the necessary clearances need to be put in place, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup said on Wednesday.
His comments came on a day when the Government introduced the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill 2014 in lok Sabha which entails e-auction of cancelled coal blocks.
"We are toying with the idea whether we can first get clearances of the coal blocks (around 112 mines) and then hand them over," Swarup said at an interactive session organised by industry body Assocham.
The cleared blocks will fetch the government more money, he added. The Government had earlier cancelled the auction of three coal blocks stating that issues related to certain clearances need to be "revisited". In the first phase, the Coal Ministry will auction or allot 92 of the 204 blocks that were cancelled by the Supreme Court in September. The sale process for these mines will start on February 11.
The Secretary further said that work on the 112 mines will immediately start after the Government allots or allocates the 92 mines. "We will immediately work on the rest of the mines (112) after these mines (92 mines in the first lot). In fact, we will start working on it from 22nd of December," he said.