Govt to offer 20 coal blocks for captive mining
The government would offer 20 blocks for captive mining for which it has received more than 700 applications.
Speaking at the Energy Summit here today, advisor (projects) with the Coal ministry P R Mandal said that a meeting had been convened on June 23 to discuss the modalities for distributing the blocks among the parties.
Earlier, 97 blocks had been allotted to private and public sector companies, out of which eight had come into production.
During 2005-06, coal production from captive blocks was 10 million tonne.
Regarding allotment of blocks to a consortium of companies, he said that firms would have to form a joint venture with a mining company and the percentage of equity would be in proportion to assessed coal requirement.
Projected demand for coal would be of 1.6 billion tonne by 2020-2025.
Production of coal at present is 400 million tonne per year.
Source: www.newkerala.com
