The government today said it will soon start auctioning 54 coal blocks that have an estimated 18.22 billion tonnes of reserves.

“Yes, sir. 54 coal blocks with total geological reserves of about 18.22 billion tonnes are identified for allocation,” Minister of State for Coal Mr P P Patil said in Lok Sabha to a question on whether the government proposed to auction some coal blocks in near future.

The introduction of auctioning would help the government to allocate coal blocks in a transparent way. An initial CAG report had recently estimated that the government incurred Rs 10.67 lakh crore by allocating 155 coal blocks without auction during 2004-2009 period to private and public sector companies.

Out of the identified 54 blocks, Mr Patil said, 16 blocks with 7.27 billion tonnes reserves have been identified for state-owned companies.

Another 16 blocks with 8.16 billion tonnes reserves have been earmarked for power generation companies to be selected through tariff-based bidding.

The remaining 22 coal blocks with 2.79 billion tonnes reserves would be given to different other firms which would be selected through auctions.

“These coal blocks are located in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra,” he said.

Medical college at Angul

To a separate question, Mr Patil said Mahanadi Coalfields, a subsidiary of Coal India, has agreed in-principle to set up a hospital and a medical college at Angul in Odisha with Rs 200 crore investment.

“The land identified for setting of the hospital includes forest land, which requires the clearance from the ministry of forest and environment and the government of Odisha. MCL has already initiated requisite action with the Odisha government for forest clearance and subsequent acquisition of land,” he said.

However, he did not give any time-line for the hospital to start as it would depend upon the progress of construction that can be kicked off only after getting clearances.

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