New Delhi, Aug. Aug 12 (TIWN) The government may push back the bidding for commercial coal mines as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to restrict free movement while the investors want more time to place their technical bids based on site visits and evaluation.

Official sources said that though no formal request has come so far from the investors seeking further extension of the bidding dates, it is likely that this may become an issue in the regular query the auction process has generated from the interested parties.

Ever since initiating the e-auction process for commercial coal mines on June 18, the government has already extended the dates for submission of technical bids once. Now the last date for submitting a technical bid is by 2 p.m. on September 29 while the e-auction would be carried out for the qualified bidders between October 19 and November 9.