Commercial auction: Adani, Vedanta Aurobindo Realty amid 20 bidders for 19 coal mines

• A total of 34 bids have been received for 19 coal mines
• Two or more bids have been received for 8 coal mines

New Delhi: Adani Power Maharashtra, Vedanta Ltd, Hindalco Industries and BALCO (Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd) are among the 20 companies that have put in bids for 19 coals mines on offer in tranche-2 of commercial auction of coal mines. The Ministry of Coal has received 34 bids for 19 coal mines. "A total of 20 companies have submitted their bids in the auction process," said the ministry on Friday. The last date for submission of technical bids was July 8.

Commercial coal mine auction: 2 or more bids received for 8 mines

"A total of 34 bids have been received for 19 coal mines of which 10 are fully explored mines and 9 are partially explored mines. 4 (four) of these mines are coking coal mines and the remaining 15 mines are non-coking coal mines. Two or more bids have been received for 8 coal mines," said the Coal Ministry. Of the 34 bids, the highest number of bids (four) have come from Aurobindo Realty & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd and Sunflag Iron and Steel Company Ltd. Three bids each came in from Shree Satya Mines Pvt Ltd and South West Pinnacle Exploration Ltd. Adhunik Power & Natural Resources Ltd, CG Natural Resources Pvt Ltd and Jhar Mineral Resources Pvt Ltd submitted two bids each.

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However, Adani Power Maharashtra, BALCO, Hindalco and Vedanta have submitted only one bid each.

Bids to be evaluated by a technical evaluation committee

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. The entire process was displayed on the screen for the bidders, said the ministry. The bids will be evaluated by a multi-disciplinary technical evaluation committee. The technically qualified bidders would be shortlisted for participation in the electronic auction to be conducted on MSTC portal, the ministry added.

The auction process of 67 coal mines for sale of coal was launched by the Ministry of Coal on March 25. This is the highest number of mines on offer in a tranche since the auction regime began in 2014.

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