Coal secretary says auction of explored blocks by January

It is expected that bidders will soon get letter of comfort for green clearance

Coal Secretary S K Srivastava today said the auction of explored coal blocks is likely to be undertaken in by January 2014.

A ‘letter of comfort’ from the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) would be given to the successful bidder. There would also be an exit route after a period of two years if the requisite clearances fail to materialize without any penalty.

There have been discussions on lump sum payment or revenue based models and a framework for the same would be intimated shortly, he said a CII conference today.
 

S Narsing Rao, Coal India chairman, said the PSU was all set to meet the deadline for signing fuel supply agreements (FSAs) and it had already entered into fuel supply pacts with about 140 power plant.

Coal India has to sign 173 FSAs for a capacity of 78,000 MW. There were issues with only 4-5 FSAs (of which three were with WCL), regarding the cost plus clause and land acquisition, said Rao.

To supplement the efforts of Coal India to augment output, Srivastava also informed that a pilot project was being undertaken by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, to draft the modalities of bidding documents for selection of mine-developers and operator (MDO) for certain Coal India mines. CIL has already allocated one block for the pilot.
 
Relatively new in India, MDO is a concept where in a coal block owner contracts entire operations to a third party, which takes the responsibility of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation, mining, developing and operating the particular mine by investing in it and then supplying the coal at a tender determined price to the power plants of the mine owning state electricity boards.

 
Srivastava also outlined the details of the Jharia Action Plan, formulated to control the raging underground fires. Two independent assessments – one by CMPDIL and the other by NGRI – on the extent of fire and other related issues were expected in three months. The BCCL will also soon seek Expression of Interest (EOI) on other technology available globally to tackle the fire.
 
Sustainability of mining operations was a key point of discussion at the CII Roundtable. Rao highlighted the need for post-project monitoring and raising of standards overall. “We need to substantially improve EMP in the interest of the country and in the interest of the sustainability of the project,” he said.