The Ministry of Coal (MoC) has launched the seventh tranche of auctions for sale of coal blocks under the commercial mining scheme by putting an offer for 101 blocks.
Under this scheme, regular auctions are being conducted where revenue share payable on coal production is the bid parameter. Besides, no restrictions on coal utilisation, incentives for early production and use of cleaner technologies are some of key features of these sales.
Apart from fresh sales under the seventh tranche, the ministry has separately initiated a second attempt of sale for five blocks that received single bid in the sixth tranche.
Offered blocks comprised mixed bag of coking, non-coking and lignite mines that are spread across 11 states in the country. Out of this, 61 blocks were partially explored coal mines while remaining 45 were fully explored ones.
The block allotment will be carried via forward auction based on two-stage bidding process. So that successful bidders can extract coal from these reserves and help in augmenting the domestic availability.
Auction timeline
Irrespective of the auction tranche, the ministry decided to carry out sale for blocks simultaneously. As per the tentative schedule, various pre-bid activities including pre-bid meeting, written responses to queries and request for site visit would be completed by the second week of May, 2023.
The due date for bid submission is 30 May, 2023 after which these bids would be examined for evaluating technically qualified bidders. Finally, the electronic auction will commence from 26 June, 2023.
* Last date for registration: 23 May, 2023
* Last date for sale of tender document: 26 May, 2023
* Bid due date: 30 May, 2023
* Opening of technical bid: 31 May, 2023
* Examination of technical bid: 1-23 June, 2023
* Conduct of electronic auction: 26 June- 10 July, 2023
Round-up of previous auction
Government’s previous attempt under the sixth tranche of auction saw an unprecedented response from market players. This also marked a mini-revival in demand after previous auctions incited minimal interest.
In total, 25 blocks were sold in the sixth tranche, marking the highest allocation recorded for a single tranche. Incidentally, the sale was made lucrative by providing relaxation in payment terms and improving the feature of blocks offered in the lot.
Overall, 93 coal blocks have been allocated over six tranches of auction held so far. However, allotment order of some of these have been terminated on grounds of delay in statutory payment by bidders.
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