Mumbai, Aug. 18 -- The government has auctioned 141 coal blocks since commercial auctions began in June 2020, of which 132 had been allocated across the country as of 30 June 2026, the Minister of State for Coal and Mines Satish Chandra Dubey told the Lok Sabha on 12 August. Of the 132 allocated blocks, 23 have obtained Mine Opening Permission after securing statutory clearances. Only 15 blocks have commenced coal production, while the remaining eight are developing mine infrastructure.
Of the 15 operational mines, nine are located in Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, indicating regional concentration of early output. The remaining 109 blocks are in stages of exploration, mining plan preparation, and obtaining environmental and forest clearances according to scheduled operationalisation timelines. Progress through those stages is necessary before commercial production can begin. The ministry outlined these administrative and technical steps as prerequisites to safe and compliant extraction.
The scheduled operationalisation timeline for partially and fully explored blocks was 66 months and 51 months from allocation respectively, and these have been revised to 52 months and 40 months from the 15th tranche. Dubey said delays in commencement were mainly because blocks were in exploration or awaiting statutory clearances. Bottlenecks include environmental and forest clearances, grant and execution of mining leases, land acquisition and rehabilitation, and mine infrastructure development.
The minister also clarified there is no open-cast mine called Baniyadih under the jurisdiction of Central Coalfields Limited in Jharkhand, so any question of outsourced open-cast operations at such a site does not arise. The figures underscore that allocation under the commercial auction regime has not yet translated broadly into production. Continued monitoring of clearances and infrastructure progress was presented as central to increasing output. Officials indicated that progress reports and compliance checks will be used to assess readiness for production.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Construction World.