Govt plans to offer 4 coal blocks in first tranche of auction

The Centre is planning to offer four coal blocks to power sector out of the proposed ten to be auctioned in the first lot through competitive bidding in the first tranche.
"We are planning to offer four coal blocks to the power sector and other six for non-power sectors," coal secretary S K Srivastava told PTI.
He said that in another one month the government was hoping to concretise the road map for the auction.
The ministry was learnt to have shortlisted some 29 blocks that would be put for auction through competitive bidding route.
Srivastava said the government would auction the coal blocks after deciding on the sectors to be offered.

It was yet to finalise the sectors for which the other six blocks would be offered in the first tranche, he said.

The government, in the past, had expressed confidence in completing the auction by March.
The Coal ministry was also in the process of finalising new bidding rules and a draft Request For Proposal (RFP) for public feedback had already been issued.
The draft RFP said that if an allottee was found to have directly or indirectly engaged in a corrupt, fraudulent, coercive, undesirable or restrictive practice in the bidding, then it won't be eligible to participate in any tender or RFP for another five years.

Incidentally, the ministry was trying to incorporate strong clauses to prevent any corrupt practise.