The Govt. of India holds back four coal mines to investigate price discrepancies

The Government will be reassessing four out of the 19 coal blocks that were bid for and sold in the first phase of the coal auctions to examine why the bids were so low in case of these mines.

The four blocks are Gare Palma IV/1, IV/2, IV/3 and the Marki Mangli III. The Gare Palma IV/2 and IV/3 that were originally allotted to Jindal Power, remained with the company for a bid of INR 108 per ton, the lowest winning bid, as other bidders showed little interest in the blocks.

Gare Palma IV/1 was won by Balco for a winning bid of INR 1,585 per ton while Marki Mangli III was won by BS Ispat for INR 918 per ton.

The winning bids were very low in case of these four coal blocks when compared to other similar blocks, with bids reaching as high as INR 1,110 for coal blocks reserved for the power sector while other coal blocks fetching bids like INR 3,502 for a similar Gare Palma mine in Bicharpur.

The government wants to investigate the reason for these discrepancies. In the meanwhile, the second phase of coal auctions are slated to commence on the 4th of March, pushed back from its original date of February 25.