Jaiprakash Power bags MP coal block with Rs712 bid

Jaiprakash Power Ventures on Tuesday bagged the Amelia (North) coal block in Madhya Pradesh with a bid of Rs712 per tonne, the highest among 11 firms vying for the mine.

Bids are under way on the fourth day of auction for another two coal blocks - Ardhagram in West Bengal and Chotia in Chhattisgarh - to be given to firms not in the power sector.

"Jaiprakash Power the highest bidder at (Rs712 a tonne) for Amelia North," coal secretary Anil Swarup tweeted.

The 10 companies in the race for Amelia (North) mine apart from Jaiprakash Power Ventrues Ltd were, Adani Power, Bharat Aluminium Co Ltd (Balco), Essar Power M P Ltd, GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Ltd, GVK Power Goindwal Sahib Ltd, Jindal Power Ltd, JSW Energy Ltd, KSK Mahanadi Power Company, RattanIndia Power Ltd and Reliance Geothermal Power Pvt Ltd.

The mine has extractable reserves of 70.28 million tonnes (MT).

The other two mines - Ardhagram and Chotia - for which bidding is on, have extractable reserves of 19.29 MT and 13.57 MT respectively.

Earlier, tweeting on auctions, Swarup said, "Coal block auction gets underway on the fourth day, adding that poor states will reap benefits of coal block auctions."

The five companies vying for Ardhagram coal mine are Easternrange Coal Mining Pvt Ltd, Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd, OCL Iron & Steel Ltd, SS Natural Resources Pvt Ltd and Visa Steel Ltd.

The technically qualified bidders for Chotia mines are Balco, Godawari Power & Ispat Ltd, Hindalco Industries, Prakash Industries, Rungta Mines and Ultratech Cement Ltd.

On Monday, Jai Prakash Associates, Durgapur Projects and B S Ispat had bagged one mine each, even as the government said that it expects more aggressive bidding for blocks as the mines were already producing.

After the Supreme Court cancelled allocation of 204 mines in September, the government decided to auction the blocks. It has put 19 blocks on sale in the first tranche. The last day for the auction of first lot of mines is 22 February.