New Delhi: The government is re-examining the bids for nine coal blocks, including those where Jindal Steel and Balco emerged the top bidders, and a final decision on their fate would be taken by this weekend — amid the speculation of cartelisation during their bidding process.
The options that could be explored for these mines, after ‘re-examination’ of the bids, would include a fresh auction for those mines, allotting them to the state or giving those blocks to state-run Coal India, coal secretary Anil Swarup said.
“By this week-end, there would be a decision on the nine coal blocks which are being re-examined by the government,” Mr Swarup said. Asked if there is a possibility that government can go for re-auctioning of these blocks, he said, “Anything can happen.”
Expecting the details would emerge in “a couple of days” on what actually transpired during the bidding process for the nine mines, he said that the government wasn’t looking at cartelisation aspect for now. There have been reports of bidders indulging in cartelisation.
