Norms eased to sell coal blocks

New Delhi: Having failed to attract any bidders in the last three years for coal blocks, the NDA government — keen to attract greater participation from the private sector — has now tweaked the process wherein the time period for seeking clearances by allottees and commencing operations in the blocks has been increased to 66 months from 44. This relaxation also comes in the light of the fact that out of the 84 blocks which were allotted or auctioned to public and private sector companies in the initial three rounds of bidding, according to figures available with this newspaper, only 22 coal mines have managed to receive opening permission from the authorities concerned between 2015-16 and 2018-19. The NDA government —which had lambasted the previous UPA regime for its lack of transparency in allotment of coal blocks, and had ensured auction of coal reserves and promised faster environmental clearances by assuring greater cohesion between all the stakeholders after initially succeeding in allotting 84 blocks — had failed to attract buyers since 2015-16 in two attempts of auction. Now in order to ensure that the forthcoming round of auction is a success, the government apart from relaxing timeframe for bidders for seeking clearances and operationalising the mines has also allowed allottees to show 80 per cent of annual committed production in the first five years of allotment.