New Delhi: The government has received a total of 26 bids for 11 coal mines put up for sale under the latest tranche of commercial coal mine auction. "A total of 26 (Twenty-Six) bids have been received (both online and offline) against 11 (Eleven) coal mines. Two or more bids have been received for 5 (five) coal mines," said the Ministry of Coal in an official statement on Wednesday. A total of 21 companies have submitted their bids in the auction process.
"The process of 4th Tranche of Auction of coal mines for sale of coal was launched by the Nominated Authority, Ministry of Coal on December 16, 2021. The last date of submission of Technical Bid was February 28, 2022. As part of the auction process, Technical Bids comprising of online and offline bid documents were opened here today (March 02, 2022) at 10:00 AM onwards in the presence of the bidders," said the ministry.
"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 the screen for the bidders," it added.
The Gare Palma IV/6 coal mine in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, with geological reserves of 166.9858 MT received the highest number of bids — eight — in the latest tranche of commercial coal mine auction. Utkal B1 & B2 coal mines in Angul district of Odisha received six bids, followed by Chinora in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra and Rabodih OCP coal block in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh. The rest of the mines received one bid each.
The Tranche IV of commercial coal mine auction has received bids from companies like JSW Steel Limited, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd, BALCO and Tamil Nadu Generation & Distribution Corporation Ltd. JSW Steel Limited, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd, Sarda Mines Pvt Ltd, Shyam Metalics & Energy Ltd and Mahanadi Mines and Minerals Pvt Ltd are among the bidders who have put in two bids each. The rest of the bidders have put in single bids.
"The bids will be evaluated by a multi-disciplinary Technical Evaluation Committee and Technically Qualified Bidders would be shortlisted for participation in the electronic auction to be conducted on MSTC portal from March 24, 2022," said the ministry.
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