Govt. Of India Set To Auction Another 20 Coal Blocks

24 March, New Delhi

The government is all set to auction another set of 15-20 Coal blocks next month following passage of the Coal Mines Bill in Parliament. In addition, the government is also likely to allot 43 mines to central and state PSUs this week.

Parliament last week approved Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2015, which forms part of NDA government’s reforms agenda, in the nick of time on the last day of the first half of Budget session and the ordinance on this were to lapse on April 5.

Meanwhile , the Delhi High Court on Monday granted interim relief to Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. (JSPL) and restrained the central government from allocating two coal blocks to Coal India, for which JSPL emerged as the successful bidder during a recent auction.
A division bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva directed the Centre to maintain status quo on coal blocks Gare Palma IV/2 and IV/3, and also issued notice to the government and asked it to file a response on JSPL’s plea by March 26.

JSPL approached the court against the government’s March 20 decision to cancel the company’s winning bids for the two coal blocks in Chhattisgarh.

The government allotted Gare Palma IV/2, IV/3 and Tara block to Coal India despite JSPL and Balco emerging as the top bidders.

The government said it was rejecting three of JSPL’s bids in the recently-concluded coal block auctions due to low bids made by the company.