Central Government auctions 31 Coal Mines: Minister

Under the provisions of the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015, the Central Government has successfully auctioned 31 Coal Mines. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.

The Minister stated that revenue which would accrue to the coal bearing State Government concerned comprises of Upfront payment as prescribed in the tender document, Auction proceeds and Royalty on per tonne of coal production. State wise and mine wise details of total amount received by the Central Government till October, 2015 from the coal mines auctioned under the provisions of the Coal Mines (Special Provisions)  Act, 2015 is given:-

Further, 9 coal blocks/mines has been offered for auction to the non-regulated sector in the fourth tranche under the provisions of the said Act.

Coal India Limited (CIL) has informed that the following steps have been taken to increase the production:

1. Mines / projects to  produce  about  908.10  Mt.  in  2019-20  have  already been identified and further plans to augment production upto 1000 million tonnes are being developed.

1. A report has been prepared for assessment of the need for up-gradation of technology presently under practice in CIL mines and scope of further modernization.
2. In order to maintain the planned growth in production and evacuation in future, CIL has undertaken three major Railway infrastructure projects to be executed by Indian Railways in growing coalfields of South Eastern Coalfields Limited, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, & Central Coalfields Limited.
3. Exploration capacity is being increased through induction of modern equipment and outsourcing.
4. High capacity mines are being planned with deployment of high capacity/ high productivity equipment in Open Cast & Underground mines of CIL.
5. Efforts are made by all sub-subsidiaries for obtaining Environmental Clearance/Forest Clearance within the scheduled time frame so that projects are able to start production.
6. It has been planned to exploit the deep-seated resources through underground mode of mining by deployment of Continuous Miners & Power Support Longwall Working (PSLW) faces.