Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi has said that the result of the first tranche of commercial coal mine auction has been historic. Briefing media in New Delhi today, Mr Joshi said, from 2nd November till today, the commercial coal mine auction took place. He said, 19 mines were auctioned which will generate revenue of seven thousand crore rupees and it has total peak rated capacity of 51 million tonnes.

 
Mr Joshi informed that the upfront amount will be one thousand 48 crore rupees. The Minister said, of these 19 mines, 11 are open cast, five are underground and three are in mix category. He said, the mines are in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Mr Joshi said, a total of 76 bids were received for 23 mines and 19 mines were eligible for technical bids. He said, throughout the process the Ministry consulted with the State Governments.
 

 The Minister appealed State Governments to proactively cooperate with the bidders. He said, the success of the auction is around 50 per cent which is highest after 2015.

Coal Secretary Anil Kumar Jain said, the bidding round was different from other rounds due to commercial terms. He said, they were attractive and rightly hailed as game changer. Mr Jain said, after Supreme Court verdict in 2015, a new bidding methodology was adopted. He said, ease of entry and ease of exit, incentive for early production were some of the liberal provisions. He said, upfront payment was also brought down.

 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the auction process of 41 coal blocks for commercial mining through video conference from New Delhi on 18th of June this year.