The Ministry of Coal (MoC) witnessed tepid response to sale of coal blocks marked under the fifth tranche of commercial mining — with bids fetched in the financial round being lower.
The allotment process was carried out for eight coal blocks having combined reserves of 2,157.48 million tonnes (mnt). Of these, five are fully explored while the remaining three are partially explored. Nevertheless, the overall outcome of the sale was dismal.
The current round of auctions had seen a slow start amid dwindling participation where bids came in for 15 coal blocks in the technical round against the extended pool of 100 blocks offered on sale. However, only eight of these qualified for the final round as they managed two or more bids.
Further indicating the dull state of sales, not much contest was seen in the final bidding round either. Notably, the eight blocks were sold at an average price of 9.68% against the floor price of 6.93%. This was particularly lower compared to the final average price of 40% recorded in the previous tranche of the auctions.
The price represents revenue share to be paid for carrying out mining activities which is the bid parameter in this scheme of auctions.
Fifth Tranche Auction Winner List
In particular, Ghogharpalli and its dip extension received the highest bid of 23% from Vedanta. These are two adjacent blocks located in the IB valley coalfields in Odisha, but considered as one for allotment purposes for which the maximum number of seven bidders were in contention.
Bandh North came second by fetching a bid price of 15.75% quoted by Jaiprakash Power Ventures. Remaining blocks fetched final offers in the range of 5-7%.
Sale of Rampia coal blocks
Apart from the fifth tranche, the MoC had launched a second attempt for sale of coal blocks under the third and fourth tranches in which a total of 13 blocks were put on offer.
From the lot, only Rampia and Dip Side of Rampia qualified for the financial round. Similar to Ghogarpalli, these are two separate blocks located in Odisha having 1,179.4 mnt of geological reserves.
Jhar Mineral Resources emerged as the successful bidder by quoting a final price of 9.5%.
Leave a Reply