Coal block auction: 6 mines in MP, 7 in Chhattisgarh on offer

In the first tranche of coal block auction, the government on Saturday invited bids for 24 mines, including seven in Chhattisgarh.

Besides six blocks are being offered in Madhya Pradesh, three each in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Jharkhand and one each in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, according to the bid document available in public domain.

The Union Cabinet on December 24 had approved re-promulgation of the coal ordinance and necessary guidelines for mine allocations. Entire auction process will be transparent, efficient and conducted online, Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal had said, while launching the portal for e-auction of 24 coal mines -www.mstcecommerce.com/auctionhome/coalblock.

"With this, the registration process has been started and interested bidders with end-use plants could visit MSTC website for the purpose. The registration process will be as per KYC norms," an official statement had said.

Goyal had said the auction process will comprise techno- commercial bid for qualification and financial bid (e-auction) for selection of successful bidder.

"Only 50 per cent of the qualified bidders from technical stage (subject to a minimum of 5 bidders) will be allowed to participate in the e-auction process," the statement had said.

It said mines set aside for iron and steel, cement and CPPs would be auctioned through 'ascending forward auction', where qualified bidders would quote incremental bids above the pre- determined floor price.

"Mines to be allocated for power sector will be auctioned through 'descending reverse auction' to minimise impact on power tariffs of end use plants. Last date for receiving technical bids will be January 31 and list of qualified bidders will be placed on February 12," it added.