Third tranche of coal auction from Tuesday; 22 bids qualify

The third tranche of coal auction will begin next week and 22 applications from companies including Hindalco, Vedanta, JSW Steel and SAIL have cleared the initial stages, a top government official said today.
The government will hold auction for the third lot of coal blocks during August 11-13.
"Out of the total applications we received, 22 were found to be technically valid," an official said.
The government will put five coal blocks, having total extractable reserves of over 2O0 million tonnes, on the block.
"Pursuant to the Delhi High Court case, the schedule for e-auction of Jamkhani Coal Mine shall be announced at a later date," official sources said.

The government had last month received a total of 31 bids from companies including SAIL, JSW, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Vedanta.

Three companies including Crest Steel and Power Private Limited; Godawari Natural Resources Limited; and Jindal Steel and Power Limited have technically qualified for the Bhaskarpara Coal Mine, official sources said.
Hindalco Industries, Jindal Steel and Power and Vedanta have technically qualified for the Chitarpur Coal Mine whereas Bhushan Power & Steel, Hindalco Industries; Jindal Steel and Power and Vedanta have technically qualified for the Jamkhani Coal Mine.
Five companies including ACC, Crest Steel and Power Private, Emami Cement, Grace Industries, Jaypee Cement, JK Lakshmi Cement have technically qualified for the Majra Coal Mine, sources said.

For the Marki Mangli - I Coal Mine, Grace Industries, Lloyds Metals and Energy, and Topworth Urja & Metals have qualified whereas for the Parbatpur Central Coal Mine, JSW Steel, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam and SAIL have technically qualified, they added.
The highest number of six bids each were received for Majra coal block in Maharastra and Jamkhani coal mine in Odisha, while Chitarpur mine in Jharkhand received five bids, an official statement had earlier.
While Bhaskarpara coal block in Chhattisgarh, Marki Mangli- I in Maharashtra and Parbatpur Central mine in Jharkhand have received three bids each, it had added.
Dsongeri Tal-II mine in Madhya Pradesh and Sondhia mine in Chhattisgarh received two bids each, it had said.

Mines like Parbatpur Central, which could not be sold earlier have received bids from industry majors like JSW Steel and SAIL, it had said.
Lloyd Steel and Topworth Urja amongst others have bid for Marki-Mangli-I mine, it added.
"Big private sector players like JSW, Hindalco, Jindal Iron and Steel, BALCO, Bhushan Power and Steel, ACC and Vedanta apart from SAIL and RINL are in the fray," it had added.