ANIMESH SINGH

New Delhi, Dec 3,2022: Out of the 141 coal blocks which the Centre has put up for commercial auction, 62 mines are old which had gone unsold during previous attempts. Therefore to make them more attractive to the bidders, these reserves have been modified.

Coal Ministry sources informed that the areas around these mines have been altered by removing hindrances and obstacles to ensure proper connectivity and easy transportation of dry fuel.

Excessive vegetation has been removed and unapproachable terrain around these 62 coal mines has been made accessible to ensure smooth passage.

After these modifications, the 62 old mines have been put up for commercial auction again, they added.

The remaining 71 mines out of the 141 are new reserves.

Of the 141 blocks, the ones which would be bid out, will be termed as monetised assets under the Government’s National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), sources informed further.

Also, eight blocks among the 141 reserves are those which had received single bids in earlier rounds of auction, and have been put up for bidding again.

Coal Ministry has been holding roadshows across the country to attract bidders for these 141 mines.

Today it has organised an investor conclave in Bengaluru, where Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi and senior officials of both coal and mines ministries as well as Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai would be present.

The Ministry had organised a similar conclave in Mumbai last week.

It plans to conduct a series of investors’ conclaves at several locations across India to attract prospective bidders.

These mines are spread all across the country in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Rajasthan, among others.