By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Jharkhand’s Chaibasa Headquarters’ Rungta Mines Ltd, Vedanta Ltd and Adani Power were among those 20 Companies have submitted 34 bids for 19 of the 67 coal mines in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh that have been offered in the second tranche of India’s commercial coal mine auctions.
The maximum number of four bids have been submitted by Aurobindo Realty & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. Some of the other bidders are Vedanta Ltd, Adani Power, Adhunik Power and Natural Resources Ltd, Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd, Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation Ltd, and Rungta Mines Ltd.
The first tranche of commercial coal mine auctions saw 19 coal mines with a rated production capacity of 51 million tonnes annually won by successful bidders such as Vedanta Ltd, Adani Enterprises Ltd, Jindal Power Ltd and Hindalco Industries Ltd.
The auction process of 67 coal mines for sale of coal was launched by the Nominated Authority, Ministry of Coal on March 25, 2021. The last date of submission of Technical Bid was July 08, 2021. As part of the auction process, Technical Bids comprising of online and offline bid documents were opened today i.e. July 09, 2021, 10:00 am onwards at New Delhi, in the presence of the bidders.
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. A total of 34 (thirty four) bids have been received for 19 (nineteen) coal mines of which 10 (ten) are fully explored mines and 9 (nine) are partially explored mines. 4 (four) of these mines are coking coal mines and the remaining 15 (fifteen) mines are non-coking coal mines. Two or more bids have been received for 8 (eight) coal mines, Union Coal Ministry said.
The bids will be evaluated by a multi-disciplinary Technical Evaluation Committee and Technically Qualified Bidders would be shortlisted for participation in the electronic auction to be conducted on MSTC portal.
India has offered 116 coal mines for auction over the last 10 tranches. A total of 19 coal mines spread across Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra were auctioned in India’s first commercial coal mine auctions, with the winning bids quoting a 27% average revenue share or premium over and above the floor price for them. The highest premium bid was of 66.75%.
