The ministry is also planning to rope in states by giving them mining blocks for commercial mining in order to meet the demands of small-scale sectors.

Indian coal ministry secretary Anil Swarup said: "We are working parallely in terms of seeing whether the states could be given blocks for commercial mining…We are working towards enabling states to do commercial mining so as to fulfill the requirement of small scale sectors.

He did not mention any particular timeframe for the commercial operations to begin.

Swarup added: "Yes this is the first ever step.

"And there will be perhaps more intensive dialogue in terms of the nitty gritty of doing it. We don’t want to jump anything without understanding the various dimensions of it."

Previously, the Supreme Court of India cancelled allotment of 204 coal blocks to private companies.

Earlier this year, the country introduced an ordinance where there is provision for private companies to mine coal, reported Times of India.

 

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