The Coal Ministry said on Friday that it will launch the tenth round of commercial coal block auctions, under which 62 blocks are likely to be offered.
Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy will launch the 10th round of auctions during the next week. The Minister has directed that complete transparency and revenue maximisation should be ensured, the Ministry said.
During 10th round of auction, about 62 blocks are likely to be offered without end user restrictions. Coal produced from these commercial blocks is permitted to be sold by the allocattee in free market, it added.
Commercial coal block auction was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June, 2020. Since then, during the last nine rounds, the Ministry has successfully auctioned 107 coal blocks with 256 million tonnes (MT) of peak rated capacity (PRC).
So far, 11 commercial coal blocks have been operationalized. During last year 17.5 MT coal was produced from commercial blocks.
The ministry of Coal has developed a coal block portal on the PM Gatishakti National Master Plan, to facilitate proper visibility of geographical features for bidders.