New Delhi, Aug 4: Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines today informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply that Under the provisions of the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015, 75 coal mines (31 by way of auction and 44 by way of allotment) have been allocated so far.
The number of coal mines allocated to private sector in the three tranches of auction for utilization in specified end uses i.e. Power (Regulated Sector) and Steel, Cement, Captive Power Production (Non-Regulated Sector) is 30, out of a total of 31. Mining operations have commenced/mine opening permission granted in 11 auctioned coal mines as on 20.07.2016.
The Minister added that the enabling provisions have been made in the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 and the Mines and Mineral (Development & Regulations) Act, 1957 for allocation of coal mines/blocks by way of auction and allotment inter alia for sale of coal.
In the financial year 2015-16 &2016-17, 8.488 Million Tonnes (Provisional) of coal has been produced, Shri Piyush Goyal said.
