NEW DELHI: The government plans to soon auction about 11 coal mines which could not be sold in the first two phases of the recent coal block auctions.
“The Coal Ministry has proposed to auction many of those mines which could not be auctioned in the first two phases of the recent mines auction,” an official said.
There are some coal blocks of the schedule II category (producing) and Schedule III category (ready to produce) which, because of different reasons, could not be put on sale in the recent mines auction, he said. “From the lot of blocks which could not be auctioned recently, the Coal Ministry is mulling to auction 11 mines,” the official added.
The mines which the government is proposing to put on sale includes Parbatpur Central mine (producing block) in Jharkhand and Marki Mangli I mine (producing block) in Maharashtra. Besides, it includes Dongrital II mine in Madhya Pradesh, Jamkhani mine in Odisha and Marki Mangli IV in Maharashtra, among others.
The government recently auctioned coal blocks in two phases, which had garnered over Rs 2 lakh crore from just 29 blocks, surpassing the presumptive loss figure of Rs 1.86 lakh crore estimated earlier by government auditor CAG for allotment of mines without auction.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had also recently asked the Coal Ministry to expedite the process of next round of mines auction.
