JSW’s objection for server glitch rejected

After two days of exercise, mines department has finally announced the allocation of Nagaur’s Haria Peethasar limestone block to Ambuja Cement. Ambuja Cement had won the bid but the auction process had been stalled following objection from JSW group, which claimed that it could not place a counter bid because MMTC’s server was inactive for eight minutes.

The mines department called up MMTC’s general manager of the technical wing to verify JSW’s claim who found the objection incorrect after which the mines department authorised Ambuja cement’s winning bid of Rs 5565 crore. JSW and Adani group who were also in the fray couldn’t match it.

Ambuja’s bid is 41.6 % of the sale value of 20 million tonnes mineral available in this block. District mineral foundation will get 10% of the winning bid while national mineral exploration would receive 2%. The current sale value of mineral from this block is Rs 456 per ton, the government would get a royalty of Rs 80 per ton.

Adani was the first to leave the race. His bid was 11% of total sale value in the first round. Ambuja’s bid was Rs 5565.50 crore against Rs 5500 crore from JSW in the second round. It can be said that the government would receive a huge revenue and hundreds of jobs would be created.