The Centre is in the process of shortlisting about a dozen coal blocks that could be offered to private players for commercial mining in the first round of auctions, The Indian Express reported on Monday. On February 20, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said the government had opened up the coal mining sector for private firms, ending state-run Coal India’s monopoly.

The Coal Ministry is likely to announce the timeline and the final list of mines that will be offered in the first round of auctions by the beginning of March, an unidentified government official told The Indian Express. The final auction is likely to be finished by March 2019, with international miners such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton likely to participate.

Coal Secretary Susheel Kumar told PTI on Sunday that the government may soon scrap the system of allocating mines for captive use – mining coal for use by a company and not for sale in the market – and allow only commercial mining. He said the government’s experience of commercial mining auctions would play a role in the decision.

Kumar said commercial mining was a “full-fledged reform” in the coal sector, and the Centre was examining whether to impose restrictions on end use. He added that Coal India needed to improve its efficiency, else it “will not be in the market.”

On February 20, the coal minister said the move to allow commercial mining was “the most ambitious coal sector reform” since it was nationalised in 1973. He also said that with this move, the government aimed to increase competitiveness in the coal sector without any price restriction on coal.