The government of southern Indian state of Karnataka has been forced to cancel auction process of 8 iron ore blocks and complete the bidding process of only five last month, a senior government official said on Friday, October 12.
He said that the government was forced to cancel the auction process for 8 iron ore blocks as the number bids received for each of these blocks were three, whereas the law stipulated that minimum number of bids to successfully conclude the competitive bidding should be more than three.
Despite tepid response from investors, the government is planning to put the 8 iron ore blocks up for a second round of auctioning as the law permitted that a second auction process of the same blocks could be concluded even with minimum of two bids, the official added.