The details of how the reserve price would be calculated and the quantum of the outgo for the world's largest coal miner are yet to be worked out

There may be no going back on bidding for coal blocks by the government, but a new policy would put a price on mining rights for even government-controlled Coal India Ltd (CIL). The coal ministry has decided to charge CIL a “reserve price” for the 116 coal blocks allotted to the state-owned miner. “We are going to ask CIL to pay a reserve price for all the 116 blocks allocated to the company last month. No reserves would be allocated for free now,” a senior coal ministry official told Business Standard.