Opening up coal sector for private mining may be delayed: Secy

The government's plan to open up the coal sector to private sector for commercial mining in this fiscal is likely to be delayed due to poor market situation, a top official said today.
"Earlier, we were thinking to open up the coal sector for commercial mining for the private sector in the current fiscal. But it is likely that there would be some delays," Coal Secretary Anil Swarup said.
He said that the government did not get "too many" responses in the last auction and Coal India has also increased its production to meet the demand.
"So, we will take a look at the market situation before we put up the blocks for commercial mining for private companies," Swarup said.

The government plans to put up coal blocks for auction to private players for opening up the coal sector for commercial mining.
The government last week said that it was not the most appropriate time to allocate blocks to private players for commercial mining.

"We believe it is not the most appropriate time to go ahead for commercial mining. Necessary ground work has been done, we will take a look at the market situation," Swarup had said earlier.
"Our apprehension emanates from the last round of auction in which we did not get too many responses. Our understanding is, it happened perhaps due to improved condition of coal supply," he had said.

Government in December cancelled the process for fourth round of coal block auctions, scheduled for January due to poor response from bidders in sectors like steel as well as depressed commodity prices and adverse market conditions.