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NTPC, India's largest power producer, has invited bids from global suppliers to meet fuel requirement for its 12 power plants. The company intends to import 7 million tonne of coal in the first phase to meet blending requirements for its projects. The company has set a coal import target for FY15 at 15 million tonnes based on the assessment of supplies from Coal India. More bids for coal import would be invited later this year to meet the balance requirements.

As per the coal import tender, NTPC has invited bids for importing 2.25 million tonne (mt) of coal for its Talcher, Kaniha, Farakka, Kahalgaon and Barh power plants. Procurement of another 2.05 mt of coal is to be made for Simhadri and Ramagundam projects and 1.15 mt for Rihand and Vindhyachal power plants. It is also importing 1.55 mt of coal for Dadri, Sipat and Mouda projects. NTPC currently has an installed capacity of 43,019 MW, of which more than 37,000 MW is coal based. The company plans to add 14,000 MW of capacity in the 12th Plan period (2012-17).

Mining at a coal block allotted to the company has missed the planned start date. Work at the site has been stalled due to an agitation against land acquisition. This has upset the company's plans to reduce the dependance on imported coal by increasing production from its own captive mines.

The Pakri Barwadih coal block in Jharkhand was allocated to NTPC in 2004 and mining was expected to start in February. The firm decided to get into captive coal mining with the aim of meeting about 20 Percent of its requirements from its own mines by 2017.

Source-On Request