Major players like SAIL, JSW, JSPL and Vedanta are in the race to grab 10 coal blocks on offer in the third tranche next month.
The government has received a total of 31 bids for the 10 coal blocks with reserves of 858.19 million tonnes, an official statement said.
The highest number of six bids each have been received for Majra coal block in Maharastra and Jamkhani coal mine in Odisha, while Chitarpur mine in Jharkhand received five bids.
While Bhaskarpara coal block in Chhattisgarh, Marki Mangli- I in Maharashtra and Parbatpur Central mine in Jharkhand have received three bids each, it said.
Dsongeri Tal-II mine in Madhya Pradesh and Sondhia mine in Chhattisgarh received two bids each, it said.
"The third tranche of coal mine auctions have received bids for several mines which were offered in earlier rounds but failed to find bidders. Out of 10 mines which were put on the block this time, 6 were mines which had been offered earlier but did not attract enough bidders," the release said.
Mines like Parbatpur Central which could not be sold earlier have received bids from industry majors like JSW Steel and SAIL, it said.
Lloyd Steel and Topworth Urja amongst others have bid for Marki-Mangli-I mine, it added.
"Big private sector players like JSW, Hindalco, Jindal Iron and Steel, BALCO, Bhushan Power and Steel, ACC and Vedanta apart from SAIL and RINL are in the fray," the release said.
The tender process for tranche III of auction for 10 coal mines comprising of two Schedule II and eight Schedule III coal mines started in June 8.
As a part of the auction process, technical Bids comprising of online and offline bid documents were opened today in the presence of the bidders, the release said.
In the first stage of the tender process, bidders submitted their technical bids on MSTC's portal created for the purpose.
"The online bids were decrypted and opened electronically in the presence of the bidders... The bids will be evaluated by a multi-disciplinary technical evaluation committee and technically qualified bidders would be shortlisted for participation in the electronic auction to be conducted on MSTC portal from August 11, 2015," it said.
