In the first ever electronic auction of coal linkages held on Friday, Coal India received bids worth ₹28.39 crore per annum for a yearly supply of 3,12,000 tonne of the fuel. The fuel will be supplied by Coal India to the winners for five years through road transportation. In the first of the six-day process, 750,000 tonne of coal was on offer in three lots - 540,000 from Bharatpur OCP mine in Talcher Odisha, 60,000 tonne from the Gorbi mine in Madhya Pradesh and 150,000 tonne from the Dipika mine in Chhattisgarh. Bids were made only for 3,12,000 tonne of coal from the Bharatpur OCP mine and closed within eight minutes of the launch. Bidding did not see any premium over the reserve price of ₹910 per tonne. The coal from the Bharatpur OCP mine is G12 which means it has a gross calorific value of greater than 3,700-kilo calories per kg and less than 4,000-kilo calories per kg. There were no bids for coal linkages from the Gorbi mine and Dipika mine. In the first round of coal linkage auction only sponge iron producers are allowed to participate and on offer is 3.78 million tonne per annum of coal. Auctions of the linkages for the sponge iron sector will continue till June 16. On Saturday, 1.045 million tonne per annum of coal linkage will be on offer.