The auction process of 103 coal/lignite mines for sale of coal was launched by the Nominated Authority, Ministry of Coal on March 29,2023. The last date for submission of Technical Bids for all the coal mines was June 27, 2023. As part of the auction process, Technical Bids comprising of online and offline bid documents were opened on June 28, 2023. The online bids were decrypted and opened electronically in the presence of the bidders. Subsequently, sealed envelopes containing offline bid documents were also opened in the presence of bidders. Entire process was displayed on screen for the bidders.
A total of 35 bids (both online and offline) were received under two tranches (7th tranche and 2nd attempt of 6th tranche) of commercial coal mine auctions. Under Seventh tranche of auctions, a total of 34 bids both online and offline were received against 17 coal mines and two bids were received only online but not offline. Two or more bids have been received for seven coal mines ie, 24 bids (Both online and offline) against 7 coal mines and 10 coal mines have received single bids (Both online and offline). Of these 17 coal mines, nine are partially explored whereas the remaining mines are fully explored. The cumulative peak rated capacity ( PRC) of the fully explored coal mines is 47.80 million tonne per annum (MTPA). 16 coal mines are non-coking coal mines whereas one mine is coking coal mine.
Under 2nd Attempt of Sixth tranche, a total of 5 coal mines were put up for auctions and one bid has been received against 1 coal mine which is a fully explored non-coking coal mine. The PRC of the coal mine is 4 MTPA.
A total of five public sector companies submitted the bids in the ongoing round of commercial coal mines’ auction as well.
The bids will be evaluated by a multi-disciplinary Technical Evaluation Committee and Technically Qualified Bidders will be shortlisted for participation in the electronic auction, to be conducted on MSTC portal shortly.
