Formalities for finalisation of commercial coal mines auction should be completed in time-bound manner: Par panel

A parliamentary panel on Thursday said necessary formalities for finalisation of commercial coal mining auction process and allocation of blocks should be completed in a time-bound manner.

"Further, in order to reduce dependance of imported coal, the government is considering allocation of coal mines for commercial mining to augment availability of domestic coal... First tranche is proposed to be launched in current financial year," the Standing Committee on Coal and Steel said in a report tabled in Parliament on Thursday.

The committee added that necessary formalities for finalisation of auction process and allocation of coal mines should be completed in a time-bound manner.

For the auction process, discussion papers containing key terms and conditions were published for stakeholders' consultation on January 14 along with a list of 80 coal mines.

Processing for approval of revenue share-based bidding methodology from Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) is underway.

Further, preparation of mine dossier and finalisation of bid documents are also underway, the panel said.

"The committee feel that in order to attain country's self-sufficiency in coal production, this step will go a long way and the precious foreign exchange spent by the exchequer on import of coal can be utilised for other developmental activities in the country," it said.

The committee noted that as against 969.47 million tonnes (MT) of demand for coal in 2018-19, domestic supply was to the tune of Rs 734.23 MT and a gap of 235.24 MT was met by import during the year.