Centre relaxes timelines, sweetens deal in coal auctions
The Coal Ministry has relaxed timelines and ironed out policy issues hoping to get a better response to the latest round of coal mine auctions.
“There are 22 old mines and 20 new mines that are being offered with most of them being Scheduled III coal mines. This means that production from most of these mines will begin four to five years from now,” said Ashish Upadhyay, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Coal and the Nominated Authority for coal auctions and allocations.
The Centre will be auctioning 27 coal mines and allocating 15 mines to developers. The old mines are those that have been put up for auction in earlier rounds. It also includes mines like Tokisud North that were bid out and then relinquished by the winner.
