With a view to improving long term availability of coal in the country, the Ministry of Coal has for the first time offered coal blocks with specified end use for auction through competitive bidding.
Applications were recently invited by the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited under the Auction by Competitive Bidding of Coal Mines Rules, 2012, for allocation of three coal blocks, to be mined for specified end use, from companies engaged in the production of steel, cement and sponge iron.
The coal blocks that have been offered for auction include Jhirki and Jhirki (West) of East Bokaro coal field in Jharkhand, Tokisud – II of South Karanpura coalfield, also located in Jharkhand, and Andal Babuisol of Raniganj coalfield in West Bengal.
The Jhirki and Jhirki (West) coal block with an area of 2.705 sq. km has approximate geological reserves of 267.91 MT. The end use specified for the coal block is steel (blast furnace).
The Tokisud – II coal block with an area of 2.25 sq. km has approximate geological reserves of 127.692 MT and specified for cement.
The Andal Babuisol coal block with an area of 3.66 sq. km has approximate geological reserves of 103.841 MT. The end use specified is sponge iron (DRI).
CMPDIL has already commenced sale of the Request for Proposal document for the coal blocks. The document will be available till May 27th, 2014.
For each coal block, there will be a floor price in Rs. per tonne. The bidders have to bid above the floor price. The bids received will be first evaluated for responsiveness and then checked to see if they meet the qualifying requirements. The price offers of only qualified bidders are going to be opened. The qualified bidder quoting the highest offer to the government in Rs. per tonne will be the preferred bidder. The bid due date for the coal blocks is May 28th, 2014.
