The Union coal ministry on Tuesday launched the third tranche of commercial coal auctions, offering 88 mines with geological reserves of 55 billion tonne and annual peak rated capacity of 282 million tonne. As many as 48 coal mines in the list are “roll over” mines which could not find bidders in the previous two rounds of auctions. As many as 57 of these mines are fully explored mines and the rest are partially explored. The mines are spread across Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
