Coal news and updates

RIL, Vedanta, Aditya Birla cos in fray for auction of 23 blocks

February 4: Three Vedanta Group companies – Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd (BALCO), Sesa Sterlite and Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) – have together bid for as many as 20 of the 21 coal blocks offered in the first round of auction to be conducted by the Ministry of Coal (MoC).

The second highest bid came from Aditya Birla Group companies HINDALCO Industries and UltraTech Cement, which had together bid for as many as 13 blocks, according to information provided by officials.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Group (Reliance Cement and Reliance Geothermal Power Ltd) has bid for 7 blocks, while Gautam Adani-led Adani Group companies, Monnet Ispat & Energy, JSPL and JSW have submitted bids for 5 blocks each.

A total of 56 companies have submitted as many as 176 bids for 21 blocks identified under Schedule II of the coal Ordinance, the officials said.

The highest number of 16 bids were received for Gare Palme IV/7 block followed by 12 each for Tokisud North, Gare Palma IV/4 and Bicharpur, whereas 11 bids each were received for Gare Palma IV/1, Chotia, Amelia (North) and Gare Palma IV/2 and IV/3 blocks.

The tender process for all the 23 Scheduled II coal mines was started on December 27, 2014 with the release of tender documents. However, auction of two blocks were temporarily cancelled due to technical reasons.

As a part of the auction process, technical bids, both online bids and offline supporting documents were opened on February 3 from 2:00 PM onwards in the presence of bidders.

In the first stage of the tender process, bidders submitted their technical bids on MSTC’s portal created for the purpose. Bidders were also required to submit separately a sealed envelope containing bank guarantee, power of attorney and the affidavit. The cut-off date for submission of technical bids was 12:00 noon, February, 2015.

The electronic bids were decrypted and opened electronically in the presence of bidders. The entire process was displayed on the screen for the bidders. Subsequently, sealed envelopes containing bank guarantee, power of attorney and affidavit were also opened in the presence of bidders.

These bids will be evaluated by a multi-disciplinary Technical Evaluation Committee which will further shortlist bidders for participation in the electronic auction to be conducted on MSTC’s portal from February 14, 2015.

Following table provides details of bids received against each block in first round of auction of Schedule II blocks: