The 12th round of the commercial coal auction witnessed 27 companies, including Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), NLC India and Jindal Steel & Power, placing bids for 11 blocks, Coal Ministry said on Monday.
The latest round was launched in March this year.
The nominated authority opened the bids for the 12th round of commercial coal blocks’ auction (excluding 6 underground coal blocks). Bids have been received for 11 coal blocks out of the total 22 blocks.
The online bids were decrypted and opened electronically in the presence of the bidders. Subsequently, sealed envelopes containing offline bid documents were also opened in the presence of bidders. Entire process was displayed on the screen for the bidders. 41 bids have been received online as well as in physical form against 11 coal blocks.
A total of 38 bids were received against 8 coal blocks offered in the 12th round. Under the 2nd Attempt of the 11th round, a total of 3 coal blocks were put up for auction and 3 bids were received against 3 coal blocks with each block receiving 1 bid, the Ministry said.
Of the 11 blocks, one mine is for extracting coking coal (Tambia South).
A total of 27 companies have submitted their bids in the auction process. More than 10 new companies have participated for the first time under commercial coal block auction.
Centre-run DVC has submitted the highest 4 bids followed by three bids each from Jharkhand Exploration and Mining Corporation, Penna Shipping, Oriental Quarries and Mines and Amalgam Steel and Power.
Orissa Alloy Steel, Saisurya Professional Services and Sunflag Iron & Steel have placed bids for two coal mines each. NLC India and JSPL have placed bid for one mine each.
The participation of new companies in the commercial coal block auction shows the interest of the companies towards the policy. The coal sector will continue to fuel the economy to become the third-largest economy in the world.
Panel to evaluate
The bids will be evaluated by a multi-disciplinary Technical Evaluation Committee and technically qualified bidders will be shortlisted for participation in the electronic auction, to be conducted on MSTC portal.
Since the inception of commercial coal mining in 2020, the Ministry has successfully auctioned a total of 125 mines, with a combined production capacity of 273.06 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).