Govt aims to engage Mining Developers cum Operators (MDO) in coal
Jan 10, 2023
New Delhi [India], January 10 : The Union Ministry of Coal intends to engage Mining Developers cum Operators (MDOs) in coal mines, through open global tenders.
Through this, the ministry aims to ramp up domestic coal production and a subsequent reduction in import dependency.
The contract period of engagement would be for 25 years or for the life of the mine -- whichever is less.
"The state-owned coal miner is tracking a total of 15 greenfield projects for implementation through MDOs with an investment component to the tune of around Rs.20600 crores largely pertaining to land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement issues, and in some cases on railway sidings," the coal ministry said in a release on Tuesday.
Of the total 15 greenfield projects, state-owned Coal India (CIL) has issued letters of acceptance for nine coal projects to be pursued through the engagement of Mine Developer cum operator mode.
Cumulatively, these projects have a total production capacity of close to 127 million tonnes per year. the remaining six projects, the ministry said, are at different stages of tendering.
Meanwhile, India's overall coal production increased 16.39 per cent so far in the financial year 2022-23 to 607.97 million tonnes, official data showed recently.
During the same period of the last financial year, the output was 522.34 million tonnes.
State-owned Coal India reported coal production of 479.05 million tonnes up to December, as compared to 413.63 million tonnes during the same period of last year, representing an increase of 15.82 per cent.
The Ministry of Coal has paved the way for releasing additional coal in the market through greater utilisation of mining capacities of captive coal blocks, leading to an increase in the production of coal by captive and other companies by 31.38 per cent, to 81.70 million tonnes so far in 2022-23 as compared to 62.19 million tonnes produced during the corresponding period of last year.
With an objective to enhance the coal production capacity, it has put 141 new coal blocks for commercial auction and has been engaging regularly with various coal companies in the country and monitoring their production.
