NTPC, Damodar Valley Corpn seek to import 5 mt coal

Our Bureau

Kolkata, May 25

Coal India has received preliminary expressions of interest from NTPC and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for import of approximately five million tonne of coal in 2010-11. The company is currently awaiting board approval to initiate the tendering procedure for such imports.

CIL sources told Business Line that DVC – a major power producer in West Bengal and Jharkhand — would be requiring 0.8 million tonne of imported coal for blending purposes beginning the second quarter.

India's largest power company NTPC, on the other hand, expressed interest in entrusting CIL for supply of 4 million tonne of imported coal during the year. The company consumes nearly one-third of the 40 million tonne of thermal coal imported in the country, mostly from Indonesia and South Africa.

The coal major would seek board approval in this regard in its next board meeting scheduled early next month.

Coal import has become a part of life in the Indian power sector due to the widening demand-supply gap of thermal coal vis-à-vis increasing stress on enhancing generation capacity in the country. The power sector also imports low-ash thermal coal for blending with the domestic coal to meet the emission control norms.

Meanwhile, as part of the logistics requirement, the company had held talks with major ports in the eastern and the western regions.