India to sell more coal mines in production push: Swarup

India will auction another eight coal blocks to private steel, cement and electricity companies in January, coal secretary Anil Swarup said, as it races to more than double output to 1.5 billion tonne.
India´s government started selling coal mines earlier this year through auctions after its supreme court scrapped the controversial practice of selective allocation to private companies. Adani Power Ltd and the GMR Group have won coal mines in three rounds of auctions so far.
The government expects private companies to produce as much as 500 million tonnes of coal per year by 2020, while it expects Coal India to churn out 1 billion tonne. Coal India´s output has been rising at a record pace and Swarup said it was on course to meet a target of 550 million tonne for this fiscal year ending March 31.