Trials for Coal India's in-house e-auction platform successful: Officials

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Coal India's in-house e-auction platform have been carried out satisfactorily, and the mechanism can have a full-fledged rollout across the company's coal-producing subsidiaries, officials said Sunday. A total of seven trial auctions involving nearly 18 million tonnes of coal have been conducted, they said. The mining major has entrusted its wholly owned subsidiary Central Mine Planning & Design Institute (CMPDI) to rollout the in-house e-auction system, with technical assistance from the National Informatics Centre.

«During initial trials, there were some teething issues that were resolved by CMPDI and NIC officials. In subsequent e-auctions, the trials were conducted smoothly. The entire system is automated, without any manual intervention,» one of the officials told PTI.

«The charges are levied as per directions of Coal India,» he said. CMPDI has informed the state-owned miner that the in-house e-auction platform is ready for a full-fledged rollout in all its coal-producing subsidiaries, the officials said. Around 1,500 bidders have already registered on the platform.

The successful trials of the in-house e-auction platform is a significant step forward for Coal India, as is expected to help the company improve efficiency and transparency, while also cutting costs. The Kolkata-headquartered company auctions about 80-100 million tonnes of coal through the e-auction platform, and this mode fetches a higher price compared to the Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) coal, which is heavily discounted to help keep electricity prices low. At present, external agencies like MSTC and mjunction are in agreement with Coal India to execute e-auctions of coal, the officials said.