Of the 41 blocks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced would be auctioned for commercial coal mining, 33 were previously allotted to public sector or private sector companies but later surrendered. Previously, coal blocks were only allotted to industries, such as power and steel industry, which use coal as an input.
Experts noted that the surrender of these blocks did not indicate any issues with the mining potential of these blocks as many were surrendered after the allottees did not develop the blocks for production in line with timelines agreed upon.
“Some of these blocks had not been developed as per their mine development plans and (the allottees) had to give year on year updates on their status.
