31 companies submit bids for commercial coal mining auction: Govt

The Ministry of Coal announced receiving bids from 31 companies for its commercial coal mining auction, in a press release today. According to reports, these companies submitted a total of 38 bids to the Ministry in three tranches of commercial coal mine auctions.

The Nominated Authority under the Ministry of Coal had launched the auction process for 122 coal/lignite mines on March 30, 2022. Technical bids, which included both online and offline bid documents, were opened today in front of interested bidders as part of the auctioning process. While the online bids were electronically opened and encrypted, the sealed envelopes holding offline bid documents were also unsealed in front of the bidders. 

A total of 28 offers were submitted for the Fifth Tranche of Auctions against 15 coal mines, with 2 or more bids submitted for 8 other coal mines. Six offers have been reportedly received for 6 of the total 9 coal mines that were put up for auction under the second attempt of the third tranche. Furthermore, four offers have also been received for the three coal mines that were put up for auction under the Second Attempt of the Fourth Tranche, according to the announcement from the ministry.

The auction process for the 122 coal/lignite mines that are going under the hammer included participation from well-known companies like Vedanta Limited, JSW Steel Limited, Birla Corporation Limited and NLC India Limited, among others. 

After the technical bids were opened, the Ministry of Coal and the designated authority created a forum for discussion and requested bidders' suggestions on how to improve the commercial coal mine auctions for the industry.

Technically Qualified Bidders will be shortlisted for participation in the electronic auction once the bids have been examined by a multidisciplinary Technical Evaluation Committee.

Also read: Govt targets 140 MT of annual coking coal output by 2030

Also read: Coal India braced up to meet its part of committed coal supplies to power sector: Chairman