Coal India (CIL) has identified five Opencast projects to be developed through Mine Developer and Operator (MDO)route. The aggregate estimated capacity of these projects is 22 million tonne per year (mty), said the Union Minister of State for Coal Pratik PrakashBapu Patil in Rajya Sabha on August 26.

The Minister said that under the amended provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 the government notified ?Auction by Competitive Bidding of Coal Mines Rules, 2012? on February 2 in 2012 and Auction by Competitive Bidding of Coal Mines (Amendment) Rules, 2012 on December 27 in 2012.

Accordingly, under Rule 4 of the ?Auction by Competitive Bidding of Coal Mine Rules, 2012?, Notice Inviting Applications was floated on December 31 in 2012 for the 14 coal blocks for power and 03 coal blocks for mining end-use.

The applications received in respect of 03 coal blocks for mining namely Kerwa (Chhattisgarh), Gowa (Jharkhand) and Brahmani (Odisha) are under process and as per the prescribed pre-determined evaluation criteria and in consultation with the State government concerned and Central Ministries, the power generating companies have been allocated the 14 coal blocks, he said.