Govt has 310 bidders for 21 operational coal blocks

As the deadline for purchasing tender documents for the upcoming coal e auction closes, the government has received interest from around 310 bidders for the 21 operational coal mines which will be auctioned from Feb 14 to 22 from the Schedule II.

Gare Palma IV 7 - situated in Mand Riagarh, Chattisgarh with the geological reserves of 156 million tonnes - has got the highest number of bidders (22) till date. This mine was previously owned by Raipur Alloys and Steel Ltd.

Other coal blocks such as Amelia (North), Kathautia and Tokisud (North) are also in high demand with 21 bidders showing interest in each of them as of yet.  Amelia (North), which is situated in Madhya Pradesh and has geological coal reserves of more than 100 million tonnes, is open for commercial mining and is likely to face aggressive bidding.

Both Kathautia and Tokisud (North) is situated in Jharkhand with their end-use fixed for sponge iron (steel) and power respectively. 

Coal blocks such as Gare Palma IV 2n3, Chotia, Bicharpur, Trans Damodar, Talabira I and Gare Palma IV 4 have also received high number of bidders at 20, 19, 18, 18, 17 and 17 respectively. Interestingly, Gare Palma was owned by JSPL, promoter of which is allegedly convicted in the coal block scam.

Out of these top 10 blocks, four blocks are reserved for the steel end use and three blocks each are reserved for power plants and commercial mining respectively. 11 mines, out of total 21, are reserved for steel end use.

Cash rich companies in the power sector are expected to aggressively bid for the four mines allocated for power end use. Moreover, experts are of the opinion that while Sial Ghogri and Mandla (North) - which are reserved for cement end use - may not have high number of bidders (both have 9 bidders), the cement players will like to bid aggressively for three mines reserved for commercial end use.