Nineteen coal blocks up for grab this quarter

The government is exploring certain relaxations for bidders and plans to put on sale 19 blocks in the current quarter of this fiscal, Coal Secretary Susheel Kumar, said adding that of the 19 blocks going under the hammer, 6 have been identified for the steel sector while the remaining 13 mines are for non-regulated sectors like cement, sponge iron and captive power. In order to attract more bidders and make successful in the next round of auctions the coal ministry is also looking at providing certain relaxations but subject to adequate transparency and competition. The ministry is just looking at what relaxations can be given so that this round of auction succeeds subject to obviously adequate competition with equal transparency. The fifth round of coal blocks auction was annulled last year in the absence of good response from the bidders as the steel industry was not in a good shape then, he added.