The government has so far received 36 applications from companies such as Jindal Steel and Power and Tata Steel in response to a notice inviting applications for allotment of three coal blocks on tariff-based bidding. "So far the coal ministry has received 36 applications from companies like JSPL and Tata Steel," a source said, adding that the bids are invited by the government till May. "The entire process, including evaluation of applications and shortlisting the firms among others before the coal blocks are alloted, will take at least four months," the source said. The government had in February put three mines in Jharkhand and West Bengal for auction for captive use. The much-delayed auction features mines that have total reserves of 500 million tonne. The move follows the Centre drawing flak for delaying the auction and the CAG saying that the allotment of 57 mines to private firms without an auction had resulted in a loss of R1.8 lakh crore to the exchequer. The ministry of coal offered three blocks for auction for captive use for steel, cement and sponge iron companies — two in Jharkhand and one in West Bengal. Last year, the government had allocated 17 coal mines to central and state public sector units, including four to NTPC. It had planned to auction 54 coal blocks with total reserves of about 18 billion tonne. The blocks in Jharkhand include Jhirki & Jhirki (West) of East Bokaro Coalfield having geological reserves of 267.91 mt coking coal for steel (blast furnace) and Tokisud-II of South Karanpura Coalfield with 127.692 mt of reserves for cement plant.