Coal news and updates

No prospect of rise in e-auction offering in Oct

October 15: The volume of coal offered by Coal India Ltd (CIL) for sale through the e-auction route is likely to remain low in October as per the coal ministry’s directive, a senior official of CIL told ICMW.

“The quantity offered for e-auction will continue to remain low in October. It will remain at the levels of August and September,” the official said.

“This is because we have been working as per the ministry’s directive and will do the same unless directed otherwise,” he added.

The government, at the beginning of June, had directed CIL to restrict its offering under the e-auction platform to 25 million tons (mt) in a year after it was found that a number of power plants in the country were facing lower coal stock positions.

Subsequently, coal offered by CIL subsidiaries for various e-auction platforms declined sharply in July and August, according to provisional data available with ICMW.

There was, however, a marginal rise in September for the quantity offered and allotted through coaljunction, the data showed.