Government auctions 6 coal mines in 7th tranche; NLC, NTPC among winners

State-owned NLC India and NTPC along with three private players have bagged coal blocks in the seventh round of auctions which concluded with the sale of all six mines put under the hammer, an official statement said on Friday.

While NLC bagged North Dhadu (Western Part) coal block in Jharkhand with 434 million tonnes of coal reserves, NTPC won the North Dhadu (Eastern Part) coal block, which has 439 million tonnes (MT) of coal reserves, the Ministry of Coal said in a statement.

Private players Hindalco Industries bagged the Meenakshi West block in Odisha, which has 950 MT of coal reserves. Bajrang Power and Ispat Ltd won the Pathora East and Pathora West coal blocks in Madhya Pradesh with 110.40 MT and 81.69 MT of coal reserves, respectively.

Nilkanth Coal Mining also bagged Sherband coal block in Chhattisgarh which has a reserve of 90 MT.

"With the successful auctioning of these six coal mines, the total number of coal mines auctioned under commercial auctions now stands at 92," the ministry said.

These mines are projected to generate annual revenue of approximately Rs 34,185 crore (excluding partially explored coal mines) calculated at the current PRC (peak rated capacity) of coal mines.

The operationalization of these coal mines is expected to lead to a capital investment of around Rs 34,486 crore and generate employment opportunities for approximately 3,10,818 people, it said.

Among the mines auctioned, two coal mines are fully explored while four are partially explored.

"The average revenue share has shown an upward trend, increasing from 22.12 per cent in the previous tranche to 23.71 per cent. This higher revenue share indicates a strong and continued interest from industry players and investors in the commercial coal mining sector and stable future of coal mining in India," the coal ministry stated.

This also signifies the success of the reforms introduced by the government in the coal sector through the introduction of commercial coal mining, it added.