The due date to express interest to participate in the auction for coal blocks as part of commercial coal mining has been pushed back by over a month.

This comes at a time when several objections on ecological grounds have been raised at the Centre’s selection of certain blocks in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, resulting in the need to review the initially selected list of 41 coal blocks.

In a revised schedule of auction issued on Saturday, the due date for submission of technical bids is now set for September 29, 2020 with the actual auction being planned in the later part of October. The approval of successful bidders is expected by November. The earlier due date for submission of technical bids was August 18, 2020. A technically qualified bidder will subsequently participate in the financial bidding.

The government had initially selected 41 coal blocks with a total geological reserve of 16979 million tonnes under the first phase of commercial coal mine auction. The blocks spread across five states — Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha — included a mix of both large and small mines with peak rated capacities (PRC) ranging from 0.5 to to 40 million tonnes per annum.

The cumulative PRC for all mines is 225 million tonnes per annum, which is almost equivalent to the annual coal import in the country by volume.

The auction was formally announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 18, 2020. But following objections from the Maharashtra government for including the Bander coal mine and a part of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, an ecologically sensitive zone, the block was withdrawn from the auction process on July 17, 2020.

The Centre is also considering the Chhattisgarh government’s request for replacing five coal mines in the state with three other mines. This was after a meeting between Union coal minister Pralhad Joshi and state government officials last month. Some of the blocks were part of biodiversity-rich forest area.

Industry analysts are, however, concerned that if the bigger blocks in Chhattisgarh are replaced, it could affect bidder interest. In Odisha, bigger blocks such as Chendipada I and II (40mtpa) Machhakata (30mtpa) Brahmanbil and Kardabahal (25mtpa) are likely to attract bids.

Coal India

Coal India expects to end 2020-21 with an overall production of around 650-660 million tonnes in the wake of the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The miner had earlier set a production target of 710 mt for the fiscal.

“Demand has started to pick up now as the industries have commenced operations,” chairman Pramod Agrawal said at a webinar organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce.

Given the situation, we are hopeful to end the year with 650-660 million tonne of production

Coal India had produced 602 million tonne of coal last year as against a target of 630 million tonne.