SAIL floats fresh tender for Tasra coal block

Steel Authority of India (SAIL), the country’s largest steel maker, has issued a fresh tender for its Tasra coal block in Dhanbad, Jharkhand.

“This is the third time that a tender for this particular block has been invited. The first two times, it was cancelled, as companies had quoted very high price for the project,” a SAIL official told Business Standard.

The block has an estimated coal reserve of 100 million tonnes. SAIL expects the winning bidder to mine four million tonnes coal every year and also, set up a coal washery.

According to the official, SAIL has received favourable responses from three-four bidders as of now and the company is fairly confident that many more would join the fray.

An official from a company looking to fill in the tender told Business Standard that: “We have gone to the coal block and seen the ground realities. There are lot of people living in the area and the winning company will be expected to follow the Rehabilitation and Resettlement policy (R&R). Moreover, our estimates say that the total investment in setting up a coal washery and mining the coal will come up to Rs 2,000 crore.”

“It is not an easily mineable area, however, as coal washery is a fairly profitable business, we are looking at this bid very seriously.”

Tenders will close on October 28. The coal block, which was with Coal India, was transferred to IISCO in 1995.

IISCO, a 100 per cent subsidiary of SAIL, was amalgamated with the parent company in 2006.