The Coal Ministry may cap the number of bids a corporate can make for a mine at one, in the next round of auctions. If multiple bids are made, the best one will be counted. In the first round of auctions, one group could not only put in more than bids but all or many could make it to the final list. Now, it will be just one bid from one group. Learning from the recently concluded first round of auctions wherein corporate majors made multiple bids for the same block through group companies, the Ministry is looking to tighten up the process.
Though the norms set a minimum number of bids for a mine to be put up for auction, they did not place any restrictions on multiple bids by one group.
In the first round, 33 mines/blocks were auctioned raising over Rs 2-lakh crore. The government is now preparing for the next set of auctions and allotments. The number of blocks to be auctioned could be between 15 and 20. The total number of blocks to be offered will be around 35.