The Union government notified the auction of mining leases on February 2 in 2012 under the amended provisions of Section 11 of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (67 of 1957) (MMDR Act). However, the auction would not be applicable to the following cases:    

where such area is considered for allocation to a government company or corporation for mining or such other specified end use;    

where such area is considered for allocation to a company or corporation that has been awarded a power project on the basis of competitive bids for tariff (including Ultra Mega Power Projects).    The Union government has notified the “Auction by Competitive Bidding of Coal Mines (Amendment) Rules, 2012” on December 27, 2012. The earlier notified ‘Auction by Competitive Bidding of Coal Mines Rules, 2012’ on February 2, 2012 and these rules have been formulated after due deliberations and consultations with the representatives of the States and stakeholders. It contains detailed terms and conditions of allocation of area containing coal for the purpose of mining and also for the purpose of specified end-use.    With regard to allocation of coal blocks through auction, the Ministry of Coal has engaged CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory through the Central Mine Planning & Design Institute as consultant to suggest methodology for fixing floor price/reserve price, model tender document and draft agreement to be entered into with the successful bidders.    The Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) which was set up to consider and examine the above, comprising of various stakeholders including Ministry of Finance considered the report submitted by CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory and after discussion and deliberation, it has been decided to obtain comments from the ministries concerned. Accordingly a detailed note has been circulated.    

This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Coal, Pratik PrakashBapu Patil in the Rajya Sabha recently.