India’s Ministry of Coal will auction 6 coal blocks exclusively for steel companies by end of first quarter of Indian fiscal year (April 1-March 31), a government official said on Monday, April 16.
These 6 coal blocks will be part of the total 19 coal blocks that the ministry will auction by June 30, 2018 with 13 blocks earmarked for sectors like sponge iron, cement and captive power operators, he said.
The proposed auction is in fact the fifth round of allocation of coal blocks that was postponed twice last year, owing to poor response from bidders, the official added.
However, the ministry will relax several preconditions to the auction process to ensure higher participation from user companies the official said but declined to elaborate the expected relaxations in bid terms on the ground that these are yet to be finalized.