Vedanta, Hindalco, Aurobindo and JMS Mining place winning bids on first day of commercial coal block auction
Monday saw these companies placing winning bids for five coal mines in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Jharkhand with a total geological reserves of 572.18 million tonnes
NEW DELHI : Vedanta Ltd and Hindalco Industries Ltd placed the winning bids for the Radhikapur West coal block in Odisha and Chakla coal block in Jharkhand respectively in auctions held on Monday, said a government official aware of the development.
Aurobindo Realty and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd placed the closing bid for the Takli Jena Bellora North and Takli Jena Bellora South coal block in Maharashtra, while JMS Mining Pvt Ltd was the final bidder for the Urtan block in Madhya Pradesh, the official said. The winning bid for the Marki Mangli II coal block in Maharashtra was placed by Yazdani International Pvt. Ltd.
Spokespersons for Vedanta, Hindalco, Aurobindo Realty and Infrastructure, JMS Mining and Yazdani International couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
Monday was the first day of auctions for coal mines for commercial mining with a total geological reserve of 572.18 million tonnes. This followed a decision taken by the cabinet committee on economic affairs in May to award coal and lignite blocks on a revenue-sharing basis.
“This is a two-stage forward auction process. A bidder has to bid for the percentage revenue share over the reserve price. The current bids are being placed after these firms had earlier qualified on the technical parameters," said the government official cited above.
A total of 38 coal mines have been put on auction by the coal ministry. There have been 76 bids from 42 companies for 23 coal mines, with the remaining 15 mines not getting any bids. Adani Enterprises Ltd, Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corp. Ltd, EMIL Mines and Minerals Resources Ltd and Jindal Power Ltd are also among the companies that have bid for the mines.
There will be no restriction on the sale and utilization of coal from these mines. Earlier, blocks were awarded on a fixed payment per tonne basis and the government believes that this was impeding the use of the resource.
The government has been trying to raise India’s coal output. In 2018, it allowed commercial mining by private entities. The government had approved the promulgation of the Mineral Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, to attract investment in coal mining. It allowed coal mining by any company that is present in sectors other than steel and power and did away with the captive end-use criteria.
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