Kolkata

The Centre is planning to open an auction of around 40 commercial coal mines later this month, said Amrit Lal Meena, secretary, of the Ministry of Coal, on Monday.

“Commercial coal mines auction is going to be launched very soon. The minister is likely to open the next round of commercial coal mines auction on November 15,” Meena told reporters at the 10th Asian Mining Congress.

According to him, around 40 commercial coal mines would be auctioned in the latest round.

Coal output

Meena said production from already operational commercial and captive coal mines is expected to touch around 15 per cent of the coal output of the country this fiscal. Out of a total of 152 total mines auctioned, including 91 mines under commercial mining, as many as 51 mines are in production.

“Last year, these mines produced a total of 116 million tonnes of coal, which is about 14 per cent of the country’s total production. This year, all these mines and seven-eight new mines will come into production and they will produce 162 million tonnes, which will constitute roughly 15 per cent of the country’s production,” the coal secretary said, adding it took around 51 months time to make these coals operational.

The Ministry of Coal, in coordination with the State governments and the Ministry of Environment and Forests, is accelerating all the clearance procedures for all the commercial and captive coal mines auction holders, Meena said.

According to him, no recipients of commercial and captive mines have returned their blocks so far.

Since the first auction of commercial mining in 2020, a total of 91 coal mines have been auctioned over three years in seven tranches under commercial coal mining. Out of these 91 coal mines, nine mines have received all the permissions and five coal mines have started production. Production during FY 23 from commercial mines was 7.2 million tonnes.

Domestic production

In the current financial year, production from the commercial mines is expected to cross 10 million tonnes. “As per the plan, they are doing well,” Meena said.

He said during the current financial year domestic coal production was expected to be around 1012 million tonnes. “About 85 per cent of this coal production goes to the power sector, while 15 per cent goes to the other sector of the economy,” the coal secretary said.

During the last financial year, domestic coal production was 892 million tonnes.

Meena said the government’s policies are to support more and more domestic coal production. “In 2019-20, in the total coal consumption basket, 26 per cent was the share of imported coal. In 2022-23, the share of imported coal has gone down to 21 per cent. Further, if we compare during the first six months of 2023-24, there is a further reduction of 10 per cent. So, with the increase of domestic coal, the import is coming down,” he said.

“For various sectors of consumers like steel, high grade and coking coal is required, which is not available in our country. So, that coal has to be imported. But our efforts are to ensure coal availability to all sectors,” the secretary added.

To a question, Meena said there are “no further plans” to list the two subsidiaries of Coal India Limited, Bharat Coking Coal (BCCL) and Central Mine Planning & Design Institute (CMPDI).

“CIL is listed. It is doing very well. Market capitalisation has gone up by 26 per cent in last year.” he pointed out.

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