Coal India Seeks Bids From Pvt Players For E-Auction

Kolkata: Despite having switched to its internal e-auction platform in January this year, Coal India Ltd (CIL) has floated a tender seeking bids from private service providers to conduct e-auctions of the dry fuel for its subsidiaries over the next two years, officials said on Monday.

This move has left external e-auction service providers, such as MSTC and mjunction, who have managed CIL’s auctions through electronic platforms for nearly two decades, confused and they were seeking more clarity before deciding whether to participate in the tender, stakeholders said.

The deadline for submission of bids is November 27. CIL had engaged its subsidiary CMPDI to develop an internal coal e-auction system in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre (NIC), the officials said. The internal platform was successfully transitioned in January 2024 after conducting successful trials in 2023.

“However, there have been complaints about the system’s performance, prompting Coal India to seek external platforms for its e-auctions,” an official said. CIL’s coal volume through the e-auction platform was estimated to reach around 60 million tonnes by September 2024. “Engaging service providers to conduct e-auction is aimed at having more options at hand,” another Coal India official said.