The Hindu Business Line : CIL to float tenders for development of underground mines in 7 blocks

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CIL to float tenders for development of underground mines in 7 blocks

Another 6 blocks to be up for bids in two months.

The blocks spread over West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra are estimated to have geological mining reserves of approximately 1,200 million tonnes.

Pratim Ranjan Bose

Kolkata, July 2 Coal India Ltd will float tenders for development and operation of high capacity (3-5 million-tonne a year) underground mines in seven virgin blocks on a long-term basis within the next two weeks.

The first coal reserve to be on the block is Kapuria — a prime coking coal reserve — under Bharat Coking Coal Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CIL.

According to CIL sources, the bidding process for other six blocks under four other CIL subsidiaries is expected to begin within next two months. CIL will retain ownership of all the mines and finance the project costs.

The blocks spread over West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra are estimated to have geological mining reserves of approximately 1,200 million tonnes, which is nearly two and a half times the country’s annual coal production.

CIL may have to pump in anything between Rs 600 crore and Rs 1,500 crore for development of each reserve.

Preparing for bids

A total of 17 companies from India and abroad have expressed interest in the projects. Based on discussions with the interested parties, CIL has drafted the commercial part of the bid document and circulated it to the respective subsidiaries.

The subsidiaries on their part are preparing the technical report of each reserve — including Tilaboni (7.72 sq km) under Eastern Coalfields Ltd; Kapuria (6.4 sq km) of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd; Jagannath (4.5 sq km) of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd; Behraband (5.19 sq km) and Khairaha (7.2 sq km) under South Eastern Coalfields Ltd; and Murpar and Borda (9.8 sq km) under Western Coalfields. Bids will be invited by the subsidiaries separately for each of the proposed mines.

“We are expecting BCCL to inaugurate the tendering process by inviting bids for Kapuria within the next seven to 10 days. Others are expected to follow suit,” a CIL official told Business Line.

“We are hopeful that tenders will be floated for all the blocks, latest by August,” he added.

Expressions of interest

The companies that have previously expressed interest in the projects include Rio Tinto of Australia, Anglo American of the UK, Asscon Infrastructure, DBT and Walter Mining and a few Chinese companies.

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure, Essar Mineral Resources and Essel Mining of Aditya Birla Group are three prominent Indian companies that expressed interest in them.