The government, which is armed with Coal Mines Special Provisions Bill, 2015, is all set to allotting mines to the state entities for commercial mining of coal. The passing of the Coal Mines Special Provisions Bill, 2015 in Parliament allows the government to continue auctioning coal blocks to private companies. However, the government has decided to assign mines to private entities only in second phase.
Overall, the centre is in the process of allotting 204 coal blocks in a transparent manner of which 67 blocks have been allotted by either auction or on a nomination basis to state entities. Till now, 29 blocks have been auctioned and another 38 allotted to the state-owned entities.
To begin with, the Coal Ministry is trying to allow commercial extraction of coal in mines which are already with state governments. Further, Coal Secretary, Anil Swarup underscored that the objective of the government was for a methodology of offering linkages in a transparent manner and auction was not the only option available to them. He further highlighted that the government had appointed SBI capital to suggest on this and a policy paper is expected be ready on this by June 30, 2015.