By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Shri Pralhad Joshi in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Monday said that the identification of new coal mines by Government is a continuous process and the newly identified coal mines are allocated under the provisions of Mines & Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act, 1957 [MMDR Act]. Since 2015,18 newly identified coal mines have been allocated by Central Government to various Government and private companies under the provisions of MMDR Act.
Coal production from the above-mentioned 18 coal mines has not started so far.Out of the above-mentioned 18 coal mines, approved mining plan is not available for 11 coal mines for assessment of peak rated capacity. For, the remaining 7 coal mines, the cumulative peak rated capacity is 41.87 Million Tonnes Per Annum. Once the above-mentioned 18 coal mines will become functional and attain their peak rated capacity, the percentage of average coal production will definitely increase.
Since the launch of Commercial Coal Mining auction in June 2020, auction process of 47 coal mines have been successfully conducted. Out of these 47 coal blocks, auction of 1 coal mine was cancelled since the preferred bidder did not comply with the conditions and vesting order has been issued for 27 coal mines. Only 2 coal mines located in state of Chhattisgarh have become operational and the revenue earned, including taxes and royalties, by Chhattisgarh Government from these 2 coal mines is about Rs.182 Crores.
The cumulative peak rated capacity (PRC) for all the 46 auctioned coal mines is 101.04 MTPA. In accordance with the efficiency parameters specified in the CMDPA which are to be adhered by the Successful Bidders, time limit for obtaining the Mine Opening Permission is 66 months in case of mine where Geological Report (GR) is to be prepared (Partially Explored Mines) and 51 months in case of mines where GR is available (Fully Explored Mines). Upon obtaining the Mine Opening Permission, the bidders will have to follow the production schedule as approved, for achieving the PRC of the coal mine.
