The government of India will launch auction of coal mines for commercial mining on 18 June 2020.
The theme of the auction is Unleashing Coal: New Hopes for Atmanirbhar Bharat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the programme to be virtually held at New Delhi.
The commercial coal mining auctions are completely different from earlier regime of restricted sectors, use and price.
The proposed auctions have terms and conditions which are very liberal allowing new companies to participate in the bidding process, reduced upfront amount, adjustment of upfront amount against royalty, liberal efficiency parameters to encourage flexibility to operationalise the coal mines, transparent bidding process, 100 percent FDI through automatic route allowed and reasonable financial terms and revenue sharing model based on National Coal Index.
The successful bidders also will have flexibility in coal production unlike in the past and provision for incentives for early production and coal gasification.
The coal mines auction process will lay foundation for energy security in the country by producing additional coal providing large scale employment and huge opportunities for investment in coal sector.
These efforts will supplement one billion tonne coal production likely from Coal India in FY23-24 and meet full requirement of domestic thermal coal.