The Coal Ministry on Monday said it has received 38 bids under three tranches of commercial coal mine auctions. The last date for submitting online and offline technical bids ended on June 27 and the online bids received as part of the auction will be opened from Tuesday.

“The Fifth Tranche, Second Attempt of Fourth Tranche and Second Attempt of Third Tranche of commercial coal mine auctions were launched by the Nominated Authority, Ministry of Coal on March 30, 2022,” Coal Ministry said in a statement.

Under the Fifth tranche of auctions, a total of 28 offline bids were received against 15 coal mines, where 2 or more bids have been received for eight coal mines, while under the second attempt of the Third tranche, a total of nine coal mines were put up for auctions and six bids have been received against six coal mines.

In the second attempt of the Fourth Tranche (auction), a total of 4 coal mines were put up for sale and four bids have been received against 3 coal mines, the ministry said.

The Centre launched the actions for commercial coal mining in June 2020 under the CMSP Act and the MMDR Act. Under the commercial coal mining auction process, around 42 coal mines have been successfully auctioned so far with a total cumulative PRC (peak rate capacity) of 86.404 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

The ministry’s view is that a coal mine auction for the sale of coal would drive competition and adopt best practices in mining as well as environment management. Auction of coal mines in a transparent manner is expected to encourage transparent pricing of coal, based on market forces.

The demand for coal is higher than the current level of domestic supply of coal in the country. The gap between demand and domestic supply of coal cannot be bridged completely as there is insufficient availability and reserve of prime coking coal.

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