India’s maiden auction of mineral blocks scheduled to commence in the eastern Indian state of Odisha next month has been delayed, an official in the government of Odisha said on Friday, October 9.
Although no revised schedule for the auctions is available, the official said that the November deadline will definitely be missed and the delay could stretch to at least a month or so. He said that the global positioning system (GPS) data outlining the borders of various mineral blocks to be put up for auction are not yet ready and this is one of the principal reasons of delaying the allocation of mineral blocks.
The Odisha government planned to be first to adopt the auction route for allocation of mineral resources to investors and the first in the country after the federal government made the auction route mandatory for allocation of all mineral resources in the country.
The auction process for 12 mineral blocks-five iron ore, one bauxite and the rest for manganese, limestone and dolomite - had been scheduled to commence from November 15, the official said.