“PRIVATE SECTOR'S PROSPECT IN COAL MINING VERY PROMISING”

As the nation undertakes the historic auction of coal mines for commercial sale of coal, this single-most defining reform measure announced by the government amidst the Covid pandemic looks set to reshape the dynamics of the Indian coal market. Spearheading this bold initiative, Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines, Government of India, aims to steer the coal sector towards a market economy, self-sufficiency, and a greener and cleaner future. Arindam Bandyopadhyay of Coal Insights gets to ask the minister the most topical issues that confront coal, in an exclusive interview.

- Arindam Bandyopadhyay

The government’s announcement on the launch of commercial coal mining amidst a nation-wide lockdown came as a pleasant surprise for the market. How do you find the response of the market so far? How upbeat are you about the long-term prospect of the private sector’s participation in coal mining in India?

For a country richly endowed with coal reserves, depending on coal imports at huge forex outgo of over ₹1.5 lakh crore, bringing in a whopping quantity of over 248 million tons (mt) of coal does not augur well. As Prime Minister Narendra Modiji gave a clarion call to convert ‘crisis into opportunity’ and urged that “this is not the time for a conservative approach, rather to take bold decisions.... This is the time to build a globally competitive domestic supply chain,” we are ramping up indigenous coal production under the ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ programme to curtail import dependency. This is where commercial coal mining assumes pervasive importance. The response has been quite positive and rousing with many players evincing keen interest. Technical bids were opened on 30th September. Altogether, 42 companies have participated, out of which 40 are private players.

This figure is encouraging in view of the fact that it is the first-ever attempt for such an auction. We have received a total of 76 bids for 23 mines. The industry had reacted positively when we decided to remove the ‘End User’ criteria from the bidding process, and now we see that almost 65 percent bidders are from the ‘non-end user’ category.