Round 3 of Mines Auction Rakes in Rs 4364 cr Moolah

“J P Cements bids the highest Rs.1,230 for Majra coal block”, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup tweeted. On the first day of the auction on Tuesday, the government had sold one block each in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, which together would fetch revenues of Rs 2,527 crore to the government spread over the life of the mines. Although the government had planned to auction 10 blocks in the just concluded phase, it could only bid out 3 mines due to roadblocks, including court order and lack of interest among bidders.

The second day did not see any action as the coal ministry decided to defer the process for Chitarpur coalmine in Jharkhand due to a court case.

An official told reporters that Parbatpur Central mine in Jharkhand, slated for bidding on Thursday, would not be auctioned as the ministry has received a representation that it should be withdrawn because the mine contains gas.

Only three blocks could be auctioned even though the government had identified 10 for this round.

Companies like Hindalco, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Vedanta were in the fray for Chitarpur coal mine after qualifying technical bidding.

The date of e-auction of Chitarpur Coal Mine, the notice said, will be intimated later.

The third tranche of coal auctions that came to an end on Thursday saw the government kitty swell by a total of Rs 4,364 crore, including Rs 1,835 crore from Majra mine in Maharashtra for which Jaypee Cement emerged as the highest bidder. The company will pay the state government Rs 1,853.26 crore for a period of 30 years. For Bhaskarpara, Crest Steel and Power placed the winning bid of Rs.755/ tonne and will be paying Rs.

This was the final coal mine of the third tranche of auctions.

The coal block auctions are taking place following the Supreme Court’s decision last year to cancel the allocation of 204 coal mines.

The mines up for auction are all of “captive” category, for use by the unregulated sector to manufacture products like cement, aluminium, steel and iron. As the bids began this morning, he had tweeted that “applicable floor price at Rs 800.”The Majra block has extractable reserve of almost 15 million tonne and was earlier with Gondwana Ispat”.