Private sector metal and cement majors such as Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Steel, Aditya Birla Group’s Hindalco, ACC Cement and Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Ltd have emerged as the technical bidders for the 10 mines on offer in the third tranche of coal mine auctions.

A total of 31 bids have been received for nine mines even though 10 were on offer. There are no takers for Marki Mangli IV and only one bid has been received for Kosar Dongergaon.

Of the 10 mines on offer, six were those which did not find buyers in the previous two rounds.

PSU bidders

The bidders also include public sector companies like Steel Authority of India Ltd and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd as the two seek to get coal mines now and preferring not to wait till the next round of allocations for the public sector units.

“Mines like Parbatpur Central which could not be sold earlier have received bids from industry majors like JSW Steel and Steel Authority of India Ltd. Lloyd Steel and Topworth Urja amongst other have bid for Marki Mangli I. Jamkhani, which was withdrawn from the auction last time has received the highest number of bids at six,” an official statement from the Coal Ministry said.

Evaluation process

The process for the third tranche of auctions began on June 8 and final technical bids were received by July 24.

“The bids will be evaluated by a multi-disciplinary Technical Evaluation Committee and Technically Qualified Bidders would be shortlisted for participation in the electronic auction to be conducted on MSTC portal from August 11,” the statement added.

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