Coal news and updates

Govt defers schedule for coal mine commercial mining

The government has postponed the schedule of coal mines to be allotted for commercial mining and will shortly come out with a modified one.

"This has reference to the document and schedule of the process dated April 21, 2016, for allotment of coal mines to state government companies of coal-bearing host states for sale of coal under the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015," the Coal Ministry said in a notice.

"It may kindly be noted that the present schedule of the... allotment process is being postponed. Modified scheduled shall be informed shortly."

No reasons have been attributed for the same.

Moving ahead with its decision to open up the coal sector, the government had last month invited applications from public sector entities for allocation of eight mines that have been identified for commercial mining.
These eight mines will be allotted to host states. Among these, two blocks are in Madhya Pradesh , while one each is in Odisha, Maharashtra, West Bengal , Jharkhand , Telangana and Chhattisgarh, an official said.

The government had come out with the notice inviting applications for the mines on April 21.
Source: ET