Vedanta, JSW Steel among bidders for commercial coal mining auction
New Delhi:
The government on Tuesday said 31 companies, including JSW Steel, Vedanta Ltd, NLC India Ltd, Jindal Power and Bharat Aluminum Company Ltd, have submitted bids for 24 mines under the commercial coal mines auction.
38 online and offline bids were submitted during the three rounds of auction.
“A total of 31 companies have submitted their bids (both online and offline) in the auction process,” the coal ministry said in a statement.
JSW Steel, Vedanta Ltd., NLC India Ltd., Jindal Power and Bharat Aluminum Company Ltd. have submitted bids. Other companies that submitted bids include Birla Corporation Limited, Jaiprakash Power Ventures Limited, Rungta Metals Private Limited and Godavari Power and Ispat Limited.
The auction process for 122 coal/lignite mines was initiated in March. The last date for submission of technical bids was June 27, 2022 except for 10 mines. Those 10 mines include Parbatpur Central coal mine and 9 lignite mines.
“As part of the auction process, technical bids containing online and offline bidding documents were opened today in the presence of interested bidders,” the statement said.
The bids will be evaluated by a multidisciplinary technical evaluation committee and technically qualified bidders will be shortlisted to participate in the electronic auction.
After the opening of technical bids, the forum was opened for discussion and suggestions were invited from the bidders to make the auction of commercial coal mines more attractive to the industry.
The Coal Ministry on Monday said it has received a total of 38 bids in three rounds of auction of commercial coal mines.
A total of 28 offline bids were received for 15 coal mines in the fifth round of auction.
According to the ministry, in the second attempt of the third round, a total of nine coal mines were put up for sale and six bids were received for them.
A total of four coal mines were auctioned in the second attempt of the fourth round and four bids were received for three coal mines.
The second bid for the fifth, fourth and third rounds of auction was launched by the Coal Ministry in March.
In 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the auction of 41 coal mines for commercial mining.