Round 3 over: Government to garner Rs 4,364 crore

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“ JP Cements bids the highest 1230 for Majra Coal Block,” coal secretary Anil Swarup tweeted. As the bids began this morning, he had tweeted that “applicable floor price at Rs 800.”The Majra block has extractable reserve of nearly 15 million tonne and was earlier with Gondwana Ispat.

The auctions on Thursday resumed after a day’s pause due to legal issues. The coal ministry had deferred the auction of Chitarpur mine in Jharkhand because of a court case, which was earlier listed for auction on Wednesday. Another coal block — Parbatpur central coal mine in the same state was withdrawn from the process on representation received by the ministry that the block contains non-coal minerals. Both the decisions were conveyed by the ministry to the bidders on late Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the government auctioned two blocks in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, which would fetch these states Rs 2,529 crore. Crest Steel and Power won the Bhaskarpara mine in Chhattisgarh that would garner Rs 1,817 crore, while Topworth Urja and Metals emerged as the highest bidder for Marki Mangli-I mine in Maharashtra for Rs 712 crore.

Centre auctioned 29 blocks in two tranches to private firms which garnered over Rs 2 lakh crore.