CIL to float tender from Mozambique

Sunday, 26 Feb 2012

ET reported that having cancelled bids submitted for exploration of its Mozambique coal block twice, Coal India has decided to invite expression of interest from Mozambique which will now be handled by Coal India Africana Limitada.

CIAL, a 100% subsidiary of Coal India, was floated in Mozambique when Coal India acquired a coal block in the country. Earlier the bidding process was being handled by another Coal India subsidiary Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Ltd which is based out of Ranchi in Jharkhand.

Cancellation of bids comes at a time when the government has asked CIL to sign fuel supply agreements with all new power units that have come up between 2009 and 2012. It has also been asked to sign FSAs for units that will come up between 2012 and 2015.

The Mozambique block was acquired to import the coal to meet domestic demand from customers in Western India. If the first round of bidding had yield results, the company could have produced by 2014, as originally planned.

During the first time in 2010, biddings were cancelled because of issues with the bank guarantees submitted by the bidders.

The second round of bidding, during 2011, was also cancelled after the lowest bidder imposed new conditions on exploring the coal block which were not part of the notice inviting tenders.

During both the tendering processes three companies had submitted their bids. They were Mining Associates, Indu-CBS Joint Venture and Kartikeyan.

(Sourced from ET)