BHUBANESWAR: The Union Ministry of Coal has received 38 bids for auction of coal mines for commercial mining. Two coal blocks of Odisha have received highest number of seven bids.
Of the five coal blocks from the State put up for auction, Ghogharpalli and Dip Side of Ghogarpalli in Sundargarh district have fetched maximum bids.
Rampia and Dip Side of Rampia coal blocks in Sundargarh district has received three bids while Alakananda coal block in Angul district has received lukewarm response with a single bid.
The Centre had initiated the auction process for sale of 122 coal/lignite mines on March 30, 2022 and the last date of submission of technical bid was till June 27, 2022. There was tepid response to 14 coal blocks that received only single bids. The bid documents were opened on Tuesday.
The bids will be evaluated by a multi-disciplinary technical evaluation committee and technically qualified bidders will be shortlisted for participation in the electronic auction. Rampia, Dip Side of Rampia, Ghogarpalli and Dip Side of Ghogarpalli were among the five coal blocks that had been allocated to Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) during the UPA government much to the chagrin of the State government.
However, the five coal blocks were de-allocated and put for auction as WCL could not operate a single coal block even after allocation of for more than a decade due to delay in land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement of project affected families.