Govt extends deadline to June 25 for submitting applications for 3 coal mines

The Coal Ministry has extended the deadline to June 25 for companies submitting applications to participate in the competitive bidding for three mines in the region of Jharkhand and West Bengal. These three mines have an estimated 500 million tonnes of reserves, for captive use of steel, cement and sponge iron firms. Till now, the government has received 36 applications from various companies include Tata Steel and Jindal Steel in response to the tender for allotment of mines. With an aim to enhance the domestic coal production, the government has recently set up a nine-member panel, which will identify more blocks in addition to already selected 54 mines, for sale through competitive bidding.  Presently, Coal India (CIL) is the only producer of domestic coal accounting for around 80 percent of the domestic production. CIL is also struggling to meet domestic coal requirements and its production fell 4.21 percent short of its production target at 462.53 million tonnes in FY14 amid some mining concerns.  Indian domestic coal demand is around 35 percent higher than domestic supply, resulting into a high deficit of which a huge part is being met by costly imports from Indonesia, South Africa and Australia. Meanwhile, in order to meet India’s growing coal demand, the government has planned to allot coal mines directly to private players under public-private partnership (PPP) mode, which would also end the monopoly of public sector unit Coal India.