Govt yet to decide on Regulatory Commission for coal

New Delhi, Aug 17 (UNI) The Government today said it had not yet decided to constitute a Regulatory Commission for the coal sector.

Replying to supplementaries, Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayana Rao told the Upper House that Joint Working Groups on coal have been set up with France, Germany, Russia, Canada, Australia and China to share information and explore the possibilities of cooperation in the areas of technology upgradation and capacity building in this sector.

He said considering the increasing demand for coal and lignite in the country, the Government had liberalised the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) caps to 100 per cent allowing it under the automatic route for coal and lignite mining for captive consumption by power projects, iron and steel, cement production and other eligible activities.

Dr Rao said in a written reply that the Government was considering a proposal to introduce competitive bidding for allocation of coal blocks for captive mining.

''It has been decided by the Government to give priority to the power and steel sectors in allocation of coal blocks... preference in allocation should be given to power projects of 500 MW and above and steel plants with more than one million tonne per annum capacity,'' he added.

He said 79 coal blocks have been allocated for captive mining so far. The mining leases for coal blocks were granted by the state governments concerned after obtaining prior approval of the Central Government.

Production had commenced in five blocks for captive mining, he said, adding that the total coal production of coals from captive mines had risen from 7.710 million tonnes in 2003-04 to 13.633 million tonnes in 2005-06.

UNI SD CS HS1422