Shillong, March 12: The Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma today informed that the NGT committee has approved on a pilot basis auction of 2 lakh metric tons of coal out of the 32 lakh metric tons.
The break-up of the auction from different districts of the State are – East Jaintia Hills – 75,000 MT, West Khasi Hills – 50,000 MT, South West Khasi Hills – 25,000 MT and South Garo Hills – 50,000 MT.
The Chief Minister thanked the NGT committee, officials of Coal India Ltd, Metal Scrap and Trading Corporation and officials of the Mining and Geology Department for having worked tirelessly for the last seven months, discussing and negotiating different terms and conditions.
He informed that for transportation of the auction coal temporary deposit will be set up and strict environmental norms will be followed in every depot during the auction and during transportation.
He said, “Several checks and balances like the presence of CIL officials and full proof security measures like the QR code will be introduced, hologram, fugitive ink and four copies of challan.”
The Chief Minister further stated that measures have been put in place to ensure transparent mechanism in place, including online auctioning at an all India level by the MSTC limited platform.
MSTC is Government of India PSU. The auctioning price of the coal will be as per the rate of Coal India Limited.
“We hope that through these process of auctioning we will be able to obtain the highest price for our coal,” the Chief Minister said, while adding that through the same process 32 lakh MT of coal will be auctioned at a latter stage, which will enable revenue earning of about 500 cr.
The Chief Minister also informed that Government will soon ensure that environmental friendly and scientific mining is initiated in the State.
