Commercial coal block auction delayed Mine list to shrink further

Coal Insights Bureau

Commercial coal mine auction has been delayed as expected with due date for Expression of Interest pushed back by over a month to September 29 from earlier August 18 with auction being planned in the later part of October. The approval of successful bidders is expected by November.

The list of mines on offer is also likely to get reduced further with Maharashtra government again demanding removal of a block – Makri-Mangli II - located in a Tiger Reserve.

Bander block in Maharashtra was first taken off the list of 41 mines following which three blocks in forest areas of Chhattisgarh were identified to be removed.

Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi has accepted suggestion of Chhattisgarh government to replace five mines with three new mines on environmental and livelihood concerns in Hasdeo Arand forest area.

Of the nine coal blocks on offer in Chhattisgarh, five are in Hasdeo Arand: Morga -2, Morga (South), Madanpur north, Shyang, and Fathehpur (east).

Efforts to auction off blocks in a hurry, many of which are in eco-sensitive areas is now being criticized by a section of environment and climate change watchers. This would jeopardise participation of any major global mining companies as they would like to stay away from such controversies.

Also, government’s move to dilute environmental norms prior to coal mine auction by issuing draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification 2020 has received wide spread opposition, Maharashtra government being the latest to criticise it.

Union government appears to have realised the situation with environment minister Prakash Javadekar admitting that ‘thousands of responses’ have been received which would be studied before the draft is finalised

Jharkhand, which has been opposing commercial coal mine auction has gained from its hard negotiation with the Centre by extracting assurance of Rs 19,000 crore of coal royalty over next 5 years and another Rs 8000 crore for land acquired. In return, Jharkhand is likely to withdraw its opposition to the auction.