Coal block bidding

The government expects to introduce competitive bidding for auctioning coal blocks by the end of the financial year. Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said his Ministry was in final st­ages of drafting the nor­ms for competitive bidding, which wo­uld bring in trans­par­ency in the allocation process.

The Coal Ministry is in the process of ide­ntifying new coal blocks, which would be offered to end-user co­mpanies in sec­tors such as pow­er, cement and steel am­ong others throu­gh the comp­e­titive bidding process. Preference will be given to Coal India based on its req­uirement.