NTPC to produce coal from Jharkhand mine by next fiscal - Company has exclusive exploration rights in five mines in the country

NTPC Ltd plans to produce coal from its captive mine in Jharkhand by the next financial year.“We have just got the environment clearance and we hope to produce coal from Pakri Barwadhi mine in 2011-12,” said the new Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Arup Roy Choudhury.

NTPC has exclusive exploration rights in five mines in the country and joint rights with state-owned counterpart Coal India Ltd in two others in Jharkhand. NTPC aims to lock-in fuel supplies to feed its rising generation capacity, currently at 32,200 MW, which it expects to rise to 75,000 MW by 2017.

The company would also take a fresh look at its investment plans in the hydro power segment in the wake of the scrapping of its 600 MW hydel project in Uttarakhand on environmental concerns.

“We are seriously thinking on how much commitment we should have on hydro (projects),” Mr Choudhury said in his first briefing with media after taking charge at the helm of NTPC on September 1. He, however, added the electricity producer doesn't have plans to shelve or scale down any of the hydro projects it has committed to.The Centre had on August 21 scrapped NTPC's Loharinag Pala project as environmentalists expressed their concerns over the impact of diverting a river for the project. “We spent a lot of money on the project, but it got shelved. So we have to look at it (hydro power projects) again,” Mr Choudhury said.

NTPC had invested around Rs 650 crore in the project, while orders worth more than Rs 2,000 crore had been placed. The company has, subsequently, got an assurance from the Power Ministry that it would be “duly compensated” for the money that is has already spent and that a Cabinet note is being prepared on the issue.NTPC is currently building two other hydro projects — an 800-MW project in Koldam in Himachal Pradesh and a 520-MW project in Tapovan Vishnugad in Uttarakhand.