Coal Ministry to meet states' chief secretaries this week

The Coal Ministry will meet the chief secretaries of different states this week to deliberate on the status of formation of joint venture companies/SPVs with states which have been allocated coal blocks both for power and mining activities.

The meting will be presided over by Additional Secretary, Coal, says a Coal Ministry document.

"Additional Secretary, Coal will hold a meeting with the representatives of the state government on January 3... To discuss on the status of formation of special purpose vehicles (SPVs)/joint venture company amongst the state government/ corporations; those have been allocated coal blocks jointly for end-use i.E. Power as well as mining," it said.

Under the newly-initiated bidding policy, 17 coal mines were recently allocated to state government companies and central PSUs.

Of the 17 mines, three were alloted to mining PSUs, including Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corp and MP State Mining Corporation Ltd and 14 to central and state public sector undertakings, including four to NTPC.

The Coal Ministry has also identified four coal blocks to be allocated to power producers on tariff-based bidding and has invited applications for the same.