Current round of commercial coal block auction got good response: Coal secy

Anil Kumar Jain says COP26 brings some uncertainty particularly to developing countries, but the silver lining is that the Net-Zero year set by India is 2070, which is 50 years away

The current round of commercial coal block auctions is drawing a good response with India’s commitment to Net-Zero still about 50 years away.

Addressing the ‘Minerals, Mining and Metals e-Conclave’ organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Anil Kumar Jain, secretary, Ministry of Coal, said that COP26 brings some uncertainty particularly to developing countries because now the result is out.

But the silver lining in the cloud, Jain said, is that the Net-Zero year set by India is 2070, which is 50 years away.

“Fifty years now gives a lot of comfort and I am already noticing it,” said Jain pointing to the current round of commercial coal block auctions.

“The previous round of commercial coal block auctions did not elicit the kind of response that the first round did. I took it that the interest is now waning. But I am happy to say that the current round for which sale applications closes today we have already received two or more bids for 18 mines,” he said.

In October, the coal ministry launched the auction process of 40 new coal mines; with coal mines rolling over from the previous tranche, a total of 88 coal mines were on offer.

Total geological resources of about 55 billion tonnes of coal was on offer from 88 mines, of which 57 are fully explored mines and 31 partially explored mines; 4 coking coal mines are also on offer.

Jain said, “The quality of some of our mines are legacy mines which people have not accepted in the past few years. There were few mines which we added which have got a good response.”

“In the future rounds when we come up with more new explored mines, the response would be better. And the indication to that is that even in the current round we have got a good response,” he added.

Jindal Steel & Power chairman, Naveen Jindal, who had also joined the event virtually, hailed the opening up of commercial coal mining.

“With the opening up of commercial coal mining I feel the opportunity is now with us, whoever wants to tap it,” he said.

However, Jindal also flagged concerns around land acquisition in mining. Obviously there are going to be challenges with the land acquisition, he said.

Jindal said that India has 17 per cent of the world’s population living on two per cent of the world’s land.

“So, obviously there is a huge pressure on land. And land is a very emotive subject. But still we have to progress to create a $5 trillion economy. To make our people prosperous and happy, we have to have economic development,” he said.

On the clearances, Jindal said that there should be a single window mechanism for getting all the clearances.