Coal block auction begins: Ambanis, Adanis in the race

New Delhi, Feb 14: Auction of coal blocks began on Saturday for the first time with corporate honchos Ambanis, Adanis and Birlas queuing up for the two mines being offered on day one.

After clearing the technical bidding stage, entities from Reliance, Adani, Essar, GMR, Vedanta and Aditya Birla groups became eligible to bid or these blocks -- one in Odisha and the other one in Madhya Pradesh.

The Supreme Court had in September last year cancelled the allocation of 204 mines.

The two blocks which have been put on offer are Talabira-I mine in Odisha for power sector and Sial Ghoghri mine in M for non-power sector.

The five bidders who have technically qualified for the Talabira mine are Adani Power, Essar Power M P Ltd, GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Ltd, OPG Power Generation Pvt Ltd and Sesa Sterlite Ltd.

Around 134 bidders have cleared the initial stages of eligibility for coal auction for 21 blocks put up by the government.

Hindalco, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), Bharat Aluminium Co Ltd (Balco), GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Ltd, GVK Power, JSW Energy, Ambuja Cement and Hindustan Zinc are other major companies which have technically qualified for bidding.

PTI