Coal Ministry offers 2 coal blocks to six companies

The Coal Ministry has offered Rampia and dip side of Rampia blocks with gross reserves of 645 million tonnes to six companies, which include Reliance Energy, GMR, Sterlite Energy, Mittal Steel, Lanco Group and Navbharat Power Pvt. Ltd. The 2 coal blocks would be sufficient to meet the requirements of power plants with total generating capacity of 5750 MW.
The Ministry has suggested three options to companies for preparing an agreement to mine coal from the blocks.
Under the first option, a consortium of two or more companies in any given block could carry out mining by constituting a special purpose vehicle (SPV). As per second option provided one company will be designated as the leader of the block and others will be associates of the block. Mining lease will be allocated to the leader. According to third option, one company will be chosen as leader and other firms as associates. The mining lease of each block would be given to the designated leader who would make the investment and carry out mining operations, however the coal will be transferred from the site to associates by a subsidiary of Coal India Limited.
Coal Ministry has asked all the six companies to submit their response within a month otherwise the blocks will be reallocated to other companies.