Centre To Auction Odisha’s 19 Coal Mines In 8th Round

Bhubaneswar: The Ministry of Coal will launch 8th round of auctions for 35 commercial coal mines including 19 in Odisha on November 15.

According to a press release of Ministry of Coal on Monday, the coal mines to be offered in the auction include 11 under the CM (SP) Act 2015 and 24 under the MMDR Act 1957. Among these, 14 coal mines are fully explored, while 21 are partially explored.

Besides, 4 coal mines are being offered under the 2nd Attempt of round 7 of commercial coal that includes one CMSP coal mine and three MMDR coal mines. Of these, one is Fully Explored, and three are partially explored.

Following is the table of state-wise mines being offered for auction:

The Ministry had organised stakeholder consultation to promote “Funding of Commercial Coal Mines in India” in June to ease the financing for coal mines and one similar programme was conducted by REC Ltd with key industry players along with various lenders.

The Ministry has developed a portal ‘Single Window Clearance System’ to facilitate grant of clearances and approvals to the successful bidders. Also, Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) has been appointed for hand holding of bidders in getting various clearances.

Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi will launch the next round of auction.

Detailed information regarding the mines, auction terms, timelines and more can be accessed on the MSTC auction platform. The auction will be conducted online through a transparent process, based on the Percentage Revenue Share model.

It may be noted that since the coal sector opened for commercial mining in 2020, the Ministry has conducted seven rounds of auctions. So far, 91 mines have been auctioned with peak rated capacity of 221 million ton per annum.