Coal ministry’s second attempt to initiate sales of coal block has been in vain as it failed to attract buyers in the technical round. The latest round of auction has drawn attention of a single participant for one block out of the four which were offered for sale.
In order to step up the allocation process, bids were invited for re-sale of blocks after their previous auction was terminated for missing the minimum bid criteria.
The blocks in contention were- Kuraloi (A) North, Saregraha, Chendipada and Chendipada-II, which had received bids from Vedanta, Hindalco and Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development respectively in the previous round.
(Note: Chendipada and Chendipada-II are two adjacent coal blocks but treated as one for the pupose of allotment).
While, Vedanta kept its keen interest on Kuraloi block intact, remaining blocks had fallen out of favor from the previous bidders. In general, no new bids were received for these blocks.
What’s next?
Modification carried out in the tender document would allow continuation of auction process for Kuraloi block despite the fact that it has received a single bid. However, final decision regarding allocation would be subjected to approval from Empowered Committee of Secretaries.
As far as remaining blocks are concerned, their auction process is most likely to be cancelled, but these can be considered for re-sale in next tranche of commercial mining auction proposed this year.
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