The Ministry of Coal (MoC) has received a tepid response in its attempt to sell lignite mines under the commercial mining auctions based on revenue sharing mechanism. This was the first time lignite mines were introduced in these auctions.
In the technical round, a single bid was received each for Riri and Nagurda East lignite mines out of the pool of nine mines offered on sale.
However, these mines would not enter the financial bid round and may feature again in the second attempt of sale as they failed to attract more than two bids—which is the required criteria for these auctions.
On the other hand, the auction process for remaining lignite mines, which received no bid, has been annulled.
It may be recalled that ministry has offered a total of 109 mines for sale in the fifth tranche of commercial mining auctions. These include 100 coal mines and 9 lignite mines.
Technical bid opening in case of coal mines has already taken place back on 28 June, 2022.
JSW Steel bids for Parbatpur mine
Apart from the lignite mines, the ministry also concluded technical bid opening for Parbatpur Central coal mine for the second attempt of sale under third tranche.
The Parbatpur mine, having a geological reserve of 234.52 mnt of coking coal, was initially offered along with the remaining coal mines. However, the mine’s auction process was delayed due to the pending court case regarding payment of fixed amount with prior allottee-SAIL.
In the technical round, only JSW Steel came up with a bid to procure Parbatpur mine.
As per auction guidelines, the mines which receive a single bid in technical round, are again offered for sale via second attempt.
However, since this was Parbatpur’s second attempt, the mine is deemed to be allotted to the sole bidder, but the decision is subjected to approval from the Empowered Committee of Secretaries.
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