The Coal Ministry on Monday said it has received an unprecedented response to commercial mines auction under the sixth round and second attempt of the fifth round of auctions launched in November last year.
The last day for submission of bids ended on Monday. .
“A total of 99 bids for 36 coal mines have been received in the physical form. For the 6th round, two or more bids were received for 25 coal mines, a single bid for 7 mines and 10 bids for 4 mines in the 2nd attempt of the 5th round. This is the biggest response received for commercial coal mine auctions that was launched by the Prime Minister on June 18, 2020,” the Coal Ministry said in a statement.
The online bids received as part of the auction process will be opened on Tuesday in the presence of interested bidders, it added.
It may be recalled that the Ministry had taken a number of reforms in this auction round like permission to relinquish part of mine, reduction in upfront amount and bid security, introduction of National Lignite Index, no revision of National Coal Index till operationalisation of mine, etc, it said.
“It may be noted that till now the Ministry has successfully conducted five rounds of auctions in the most transparent manner and auctioned 64 blocks with 152 million tonnes (MT) PRC. Once these blocks are operational, they will generate more than ₹20,000 crore to the States as annual revenue, leading to direct and indirect employment of more than two lakh,” the Ministry noted.