Coal news and updates

CMPDI not confident of good response for new block auctions

July 1: Even though the Ministry of Coal (MoC) has announced its plan to auction a few coal blocks which were taken away from earlier allocattees, the executing agency, CMPDI, seems to be doubtful about receiving good response from potential bidders.

“We cannot comment on this (future auctions) as we are yet to get any information from the ministry,” a source said.

CMPDI has recently received poor market response from bidders for the competitive bidding of three blocks which the previous government had put for auctions. While two bids were received for one block, there was no bid for other two blocks, CMPDI sources said.

Asked if auction of the next round of blocks could fetch a better market response, the source said, “It is difficult to guess the mood of the market. About 40 companies had shown interest and collected bid documents for the competitive bidding, but only two of them participated.”

Meanwhile, the ministry said on July 1 that it was contemplating auctioning 25 blocks that were withdrawn from previous allocattees due to lack of progress.

“There are 25 deallocated coal blocks where court cases have not been filed as per the information available. These coal blocks could be considered for allocation under the new dispensation,” a recent official document said.