Trials for Coal India's in-house e-auction platform to begin in May

Trials for Coal India's in-house e-auction platform will begin in May, a senior official said on Thursday.

At present, the e-auctions are conducted through external agencies such as MSTC Ltd and mjunction Ltd.

Within the next three-four months, all e-auctions of the state-owned Coal India will move to the in-house platform, which has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) with the assistance of Central Mine Planning & Design Institute, the official said.

"We expect to begin trials of the in-house platform in the first or second week of May with the e-auction of coal from Central Coalfields Ltd. The next one will be Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) in the second phase of the trials," a senior Coal India official said.

The total coal sold via e-auction per year is around 100 million tonne or about 15 per cent of the production, while the rest is sold through linkages. Coal India fetches a significantly higher price on the coal sold through e-auction, he said.

In 2023-24, Coal India's production was 703 million tonne.

Around 1,500 bidders have already registered on the in-house platform, the official said, adding that the figure is expected to rise to 5,000 in the future.

At present, mjunction -- a JV between Tata Steel and SAIL, and public sector undertaking (PSU) MSTC Ltd execute Coal India's e-auction at a ratio of 60:40.