India govt. kept 8 coal mines on part post in 3rd phase of auction

The India govt. will keep on the part post more than 8 mines after 10 mines are auctioned in the third phase, for which the process has already begun, according to official statement today. "After these 10 mines, 8 more mines are in the alignment’’, Anil Swarup who is presently Coal Secretary told on the sidelines of Minerals and Metals conference. He said that within a month they "have more than more mines coming in so that they would suffice for other sectors also."Swarup said keeping in mind plans to jump country ' s coal production to 1.5 billion tonnes by 2020, there is a plan for hiring manpower to mine the blocks. "As far as 1.5 billion tonnes of production is concerned we have a full-fledged human resource plan of having manpower to mine these mines," he also said. The process to auction 10 coal blocks in the third tranche, inviting bids from companies engaged in sectors like steel, cement and captive power generation will grow quickly earlier this month according to Coal Minister. "The government of India has directed the nominated authority to undertake the auction of 10 identified schedule II & III coal mines to acceptable companies. This is why, tender are invited from acceptable companies for shortlisting of qualified tenders," the Coal Ministry had said in a notice during to inviting tender. Government had earlier said that it would auction 10 coal mines with statutory cash reserve of 858.19 million tonnes for steel, cement as well as captive power plants and the process will be completed in the end of August. The government has so far auctioned 29 coal blocks in two tranches to private companies and garnered over Rs 2 lakh crore, surpassing CAG ' s loss estimates of Rs 1.86 lakh crore in allotment of mines earlier without auction. Of the total estimated geological reserves, these mines have extractable coal of about 356.245 million tonnes and are located in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. The third round of auction will take place between August 11-17. Swarup had earlier said that the government would execute agreements with successful bidders by August 31 and "so the process by and large will be completed by August 31". The Supreme Court in September last year had cancelled allocation of 204 coal mines to companies without auction. Under schedule II category (producing) mines, two will be auctioned, while in the schedule III (ready to produce) 8 mines will be put on offer. The two mines in schedule II category are MarkiMangli-I mine in Maharashtra and Parbatpur-Central mine in Jharkhand. Both are explored blocks having extractable reserves of 62.12 million tonnes. The 8 mines in the schedule III category are Dongri Tal-II mine (Madhya Pradesh), KosarDongergaon (Maharashtra), Margi Mangli-IV (Maharashtra), Majra (Maharashtra), Chitarpur (Jharkhand), Bhaskarpara (Chhattisgarh), Sondiha (Chhattisgarh) and Jamkhani (Odisha).