Press Trust of India
New Delhi, August 13: The third tranche of coal auctions that came to an end Thursday saw the government kitty swelling by a total of Rs 4,364 crore, including Rs 1,835 crore from Majra mine in Maharashtra for which Jaypee Cement emerged as the highest bidder. On the first day of the current round on Tuesday, the government auctioned two blocks in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, which fetched Rs 2,529 crore.
“J P Cements emerged as the highest bidder quoting Rs 1,230 a tonne for Majra Coal Block,” Nominated Authority for auctions and Joint Secretary, Coal Vivek Bharadwaj told PTI after the cement major emerged as the highest bidder for the block amid players like ACC Cement and JK Lakshmi Cement in the fray.This time the government had to bear with proceeds of just Rs 4,364 crore from the auctions as legal tangle and other issues became roadblocks and forced it to put on block barely three out of the proposed 10 mines during the thirdround.
The Majra coal mine has extractable reserves of 14.92 million tonne (MT) and on the basis of highest bidding amount of Rs 1,230 a tonne, it will fetch government Rs 1,835 crore. Besides ACC, Jaypee Cement and JK Lakshmi, other companies in the race for this mine were Crest Steel and Power, Emami Cement, and Grace Industries. Majra mine was earlier allotted to Gondwana Ispat. The present auctions saw two Topworth Group companies besides Jaypee Cement emerging as highest bidders for three blocks.
The auctions resumed Thursday after pause for a day due to legal issues. The government had fetched over Rs 2 lakh crore from auction of 29 mines earlier in the year in the first and second rounds of bidding with massive response from a large number of players.
