JSW Steel, NMDC Ltd, JSW Energy, ACC Ltd, NTPC Mining Ltd and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) were are among the 31 companies that submitted bids for the tenth round of commercial coal mine auction.
"A total of 31 companies have submitted their bids in the auction process," the coal ministry said in a statement on October 21. This round was launched on June 21, and bid submission date was extended twice to give sufficient time to prospective bidders, the statement added.
More than 10 new companies have participated for the first time under commercial coal mine auction.
A total of 67 coal blocks were put up for sale in June under the tenth round of commercial mines auction. The government has received 44 bids for the 67 coal mines, the statement said. While a total of 45 bids has been received online, 44 bids were received in physical form.
"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, to be conducted on MSTC portal," it added.
India will continue to rely on coal for power generation for at least another decade. This is because of two reasons revolving around energy security and affordability — the unprecedented growth in power demand is likely to touch 335 GW by 2030 from the current 240 GW, and the high costs involved in energy storage which acts as a barrier to round-the-clock renewable energy supply.
To meet the growing demand, the government has revised its plan to increase the country’s coal-fired power generation capacity to about 80 GW by 2030 instead of 51 GW as was planned earlier. This means more coal needs to be mined for increased supply to thermal power plants.
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