“We expect more coal mines to be allocated to NTPC by the government and we are confident of achieving a production of 300 million metric tons per year (mtpy) over the next five years and become completely self-reliant in coal supplies,” said Arup Roychowdhury, chairman and managing director, NTPC. At present, the power company requires 166 million mtpy of coal, 90% of which was supplied by Coal India Ltd. (CIL) to feed NTPC’s aggregate thermal power generating capacity of 43,000 MW. Additional coal would be required for 33,000
MW of new thermal power capacity under planning and various stages of implementation over the next five years.
NTPC is planning to set up a separate division within the company to be exclusively responsible for mining operations, a senior NTPC official said. The power generating company plans to fast-track development of 10 coal blocks already allotted to it by the government with an estimated reserve of 5 billion mt and potential to achieve an annual production of 100 million mtpy, the official said. To hit the 300-million-mtpy target, NTPC was banking on allocation of more coal blocks by the Indian government.
