India's government received 49 bids for 24 of the 41 coal blocks on offer in the 14th round of commercial coal block auctions, the ministry of coal said on December 23.

A total of 11 companies participated in the auction, including five new entrants, which reflected the growing investor interest in the country's coal mining framework, the ministry noted.

As many as 20 fully explored and 21 partially explored coal mines were offered for sale, and underground coal gasification projects were introduced for the time in this round of auction, officials said.

The ministry of coal has so far auctioned 133 coal mines across 12 rounds of commercial coal mine auctions, with a peak rated capacity of nearly 276 million tonnes per annum.