India puts private coal mining on the backburner

Opening up of the Indian coal sector for commercial mining by private miners has officially been put on the backburner.

The move to open up commercial mining and auction of coal blocks to private miners for production without any end-use restrictions and free pricing regime has been hanging fire since last year, with the federal government acknowledging a lack of consensus among various industry stakeholder and political uncertainties with the national elections scheduled within the next few months.