Commercial coal mining for pvt sector to cut import dependency: Vedanta

Mining baron Anil Agarwal on Friday said commercial coal mining for the private sector in the country will help in cutting down import dependency and his firm Vedanta Ltd will look for opportunities once it begins.

Also, Agarwal said Vedanta is keen to participate in auction of iron ore in future.

In a major reform in the coal sector since its nationalisation in 1973, the government last year in February had allowed private companies to mine the fossil fuel for commercial use, ending the monopoly of state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL).

The Centre had termed the move of opening up of commercial coal mining for the private sector as the most ambitious coal sector reform since the nationalisation of this sector.