State-owned Coal India (CIL) plans to start mining from 18 abandoned mines through joint venture route to bridge demand-supply gap of the dry fuel, the Rajya Sabha was told today.
These mines have an estimated 1.6 billion tonnes reserves and the mining is likely to start next year.
"Coal India has proposed to re-open, salvage and operate 18 identified abandoned underground mines," Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal informed Rajya Sabha in a written reply today.
"For selection of joint venture partners having technical expertise and financial capabilities, global expression of interest was invited. Twelve responses were received out of which ten have been short listed who are eligible to bid for the tender," he said.
He added that state-owned PSU has also sought certain permission/clarifications from the Coal Ministry concerning sale of coal to such joint venture partners in order to make the proposal encouraging for the prospective bidders.
Out of these 18, six are housed in Eastern Coalfields, eight in Bharat Coking Coal and four in Central Coalfields.