Two months after giving away 29 blocks through competitive bidding process for the power sector, the Government on Thursday announced that it will auction 10 coal mines in the third tranche with extractable reserves worth 356 million tonnes next month for unregulated sectors like steel and cement. The process will be completed by August end.
“We have lined up 10 coal blocks and all of these are in the unregulated sector. The auctions will be held from August 11 to August 17,” Coal Secretary Anil Swarup told media persons in a press conference.
The notice for auction will be issued on June 8, while the bid due dates (for submission of the documents) is July 21. The Government will execute agreements with successful bidders by August 31, the Secretary informed.
Explaining the two months gap between the coal blocks auction process (as the first two rounds were completed in March this year), Swarup said that during this time through intensive interactions with the Environment Ministry, it was being ensured that maximum number of coal mines which had been awaiting environmental clearances since years, are cleared for production purposes.
“In the last 10 months, 2,000 hectares of land has been acquired, 41 coal mines have received environmental clearances and as a result of all this, the Coal Ministry is in a position to give blocks to the unregulated sector,” Swarup said.
Even the 10 blocks which will be given away through competitive bidding next month, have their environmental clearances in place, he informed.
“There has been lot of demand from the unregulated sectors in the nature of industries in cement, steel and so on ... So, these are the blocks which would be put up for auction,” the Coal Secretary said. These mines have extractable coal of about 356.245 million tonnes and are located in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
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.
When asked about successful bidders not being able to take possession of blocks won by them in the first two rounds, owing to delay in signing MoUs with state governments where the reserves are located, Swarup said the Centre is trying its best to expedite the process.
“Five blocks have been given to the successful bidders. There are some issues like transfer of land, forest clearances etc., however I have personally spoken to Chief Secretaries (of the concerned states), and will also be going there to ensure that blocks are given away,” Swarup said.
Explaining the technicalities, he said that unlike in the first two rounds, this time multiple bids from a single company for a particular will be considered as a single entity so that there is greater competition.
The Supreme Court in September last year had cancelled allocation of 204 coal mines to companies without auction, terming the same as arbitrary and illegal.