The Coal Ministry has set up a committee headed by former Chief Vigilance Commissioner Pratyush Sinha to assess the compensation to be paid by winning bidders of already running mines.
The committee will also include officials of ministries of Coal, Power, Finance and Law and will submit its recommendations by November 10.
The move is part of the e-auction process of coal blocks which was started after the Government promulgated an ordinance to allow the same.
At a briefing after the Cabinet meeting to announce the clearing of the ordinance, Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy said that winning bidders will have to pay a compensation to mining lease holders of 37 coal blocks that are already producing and five where significant work has been done.
The Supreme Court had on September 24 cancelled the allocation of 204 coal blocks between 1993 and 2010. Out of these, 37 coal mines are already producing and another five are set to produce soon.
The committee formed will value the assets of each of these 42 blocks. As per an office memorandum seen by Business Line, the terms of reference for the committee is valuation of tangible assets used for coal mining operations, valuation of land demarcated for afforestation and land for rehabilitation and re-settlement of persons affected by coal mining operations.
The committee will also assess the liabilities associated with the operation of the mine.