State-run miner Coal India Ltd (CIL) has floated fresh tenders for second tranche of sales envisaged under abandoned coal mines scheme. These involve offer for new mines along with rolled-over mines that have already featured in the previous round.
The sale of abandoned mines, carried out via auctions based on revenue sharing mechanism, was initiated in an attempt to restart coal production after operations at these projects were discontinued mainly on account of difficult mining conditions and financial losses.
In the first tranche of sale, the miner had offered twenty abandoned mines spread across its various subsidiaries, of which eleven had received bids in the technical round. The tenders for these mines are currently under different stages of development.
Nevertheless, a second tranche has been launched simultaneously that features abandoned mines which are considered for re-tendering after previous tenders in first tranche were cancelled due to non-receipt of bids.
Besides, few new projects have also been included under this exercise. Till date, a total of twenty abandoned mines have been offered in the second tranche, of which nine are new mines belonging to CIL subsidiaries – MCL, BCCL, ECL, WCL and CCL.
MCL enters into auctions
CIL’s largest coal producing subsidiary – Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) – was yet to offer any abandoned mines.
However, opening its account, the company has put Orient Colliery Mine-4 and Talchar Colliery for the second tranche of sales. These two mines possess a combined extractable reserve of 11 mnt.
Among the subsidiaries, Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) has offered a maximum of eight abandoned mines, but five of these are rolled-over mines. Next in line is Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) with six entries.
Apart from MCL, two mines were put by Eastern Coalfields (ECL), while one mine each was offered from Central Coalfields (CCL) and Southern Coalfields (SECL).
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