Bhubaneswar: The Central government has announced auction of 67 coal mines located in eight states including Odisha.
Union Minister of Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy launched the 10th tranche of auctions of the explored and partially explored coal mines in Hyderabad on Friday.
The mines are located in the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal and Telangana. Those include three coking coal mines also.
Speaking on the occasion, the Union Minister called upon the coal entrepreneurs to collaborate for the nation’s development and align with the vision of making India self-sufficient in coal production.
Minister of State for Coal and Mines Satish Chandra Dubey assured that the coal block allocatees would be given all possible support for ease of doing business. Suggestions and feedback are being taken by the ministry from the mining industry for improving the coal sector, he added.
It may be noted that the ministry has already auctioned 107 coal blocks with 256 million tonne of peak rated capacity in the last nine rounds. The commercial coal block auction was launched in 2020. So far, 11 commercial coal blocks have been made operational.