The Indian government on Tuesday, February 21, opened up commercial coal mining by private sector miners but the auction of allocation of coal blocks to such miners will not include coking coal, a senior government official said on Wednesday, February 21.
The government official said that the Cabinet Committee for Economic Affairs of the Indian government has approved the methodology of auction of coal blocks to private sector miners, thereby ending nationalization of the coal sector since 1973, and private miners will be allowed to produce from mines secured through competitive bidding without any end-use restrictions, the official said.
However, considering that Bharat Coking Coal Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of government-owned Coal India Limited, had sought additional coking coal blocks through the preferential allotment dispensation and taking into account the limited coking coal resources in the country, private mining will be restricted to thermal coal, the official added.
On the other hand, while keeping coking coal outside the purview of private sector mining, the government has been working to shift administrative control of coking coal from the Coal Ministry to the Steel Ministry, ensuring an integrated growth of coking coal production along with the steel industry, he added.