Addressing the joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the Budget Session, President Pranab Mukherjee underscored that NDA government was committed to optimum utilization and transparency in allocation of natural resources, including coal, the auction for which have started and would reduce the power costs in the country since this would provide adequate fuel to increase power generation.
He further stated that this auction, would provide huge resources from allotment of mines to the mineral and coal bearing states particularly in eastern areas for accelerated development of the region and had it not been for swift and timely decision of the government to auction these mines, several mines would have been shut down and would have rendered thousand jobless.
He further said that the government in the coming years would make focused efforts to expand exploration capacity and to increase domestic coal production to 1,000 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).
So far, the government has sold 19 coal blocks in the first phase of coal auctions, which is expected to fetch six states over Rs 1 lakh crore. The auction that started on February 14 and concluded on February 22 is expected to benefit States like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, and MP the most. Lastly, the second round of auction in which government has put on sale 21 mines will begin from February 25.