The Odisha Government has requested the central government to defer the coal block auction process by three months in view of the unfavourable market situation due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Nine of the total 41 coal mines listed by the central government for auction for commercial mining are from Odisha and around 10,750 million tonnes of coal are reserved in these blocks. The last date for the submission of the bid is September 29 and the e-auction will be held from October 19 to November 9, 2020, for coal mines. Coal trading market has been adversely affected by COVID-19 outbreak and the market value of coal has significantly gone down in comparison to the last year.