Six months after auction process was initiated for 43 mines across 12-mineral bearing states, only six blocks have managed to find buyers — prompting the Centre to direct the states to put in “greater
Six months after auction process was initiated for 43 mines across 12-mineral bearing states, only six blocks have managed to find buyers — prompting the Centre to direct the states to put in “greater efforts”.
States had identified 43 mines bearing minerals such as iron ore, bauxite, gold and limestone for auction in the first phase. Only six mines have been auctioned, which will earn a revenue, including royalties, of Rs 18,146 crore.
At a high-level meeting of representatives from Centre and the states earlier this month, mines secretary Balvinder Kumar expressed his “dissatisfaction” on the slow pace with only six blocks having been auctioned by three states.
At the Coordination-cum-Empowered Committee (CCEC) meeting, Mr Kumar directed the states to put in “greater effort” on their part to ensure the success of the auctions.
The representatives from various states are believed to have said that land ownership, distance of the mine from production site and eco-sensitive zones in the vicinity of the mine were some issues that discouraged potential bidders from participating in the auctions.
Andhra Pradesh had to extend the date of initial bids for six limestone blocks to April 30, 2016.
Goa said that there was no scope for more iron ore blocks to be put for auction and requested mines ministry to approach Supreme Court for relaxing the cap on production of the ore. Gujarat attribu-ted the low participation to long distance of mine from market.
