Mumbai: National Thermal Power Corporation on Tuesday said that it would seek a clarification from the Supreme Court on its recent order that cancelled the allocation of three coal mines that belonged the state-owned firm.
Of the 218 coal mines reviewed by the apex court, six blocks -- Pakri-Barwadih, Kerandari, Chatti-Bariatu and Chatti -Bariatu (south) in Jharkhand, Tallaipali in Chhattisgarh and Dulanga mines in Odisha -- belong to NTPC.
In an order on September 25, it cancelled all but four of the 218 coal blocks allocated to various companies by the government between 1993 and 2010. The four mines which were spared include NTPC's Pakri-Barwadih block.
"We will seek clarification from the Supreme Court on three mines - Kerandari, Tallaipali and Dulanga - shortly," NTPC chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury said.
"The Supreme Court has cleared allocation of one mine and has given some justification for it. But we feel these justifications are applicable to these remaining mines as well. Therefore, we will approach the court to seek clarification on the cancellation of these mines," he added.
"There is indeed a coal shortage and we need to work towards increasing capacity as dependence on thermal power has gone up. As such there is no impact of the Supreme Court order on us as none of the cancelled blocks are linked to any of our projects," he said.
Choudhury said that the court has ordered status quo on the Chatti-Bariatu block and so it can start production there any day, post clearance from the coal controller. Initially, the company expects to mine nearly 1-2 billion tonnes per year. The Chatti-Bariatu, Talaipalli, Kerandari and Dulanga blocks are scheduled to commence production from next February, March, August and March 2016 respectively, while the Chatti-Bariatu (South) is expected to start production by 2038.
When asked whether the company would participate in the fresh round of auctions for the deallocated coal blocks, he said: "We will be participating in the auction process."
The company had a total of 10 mines including the aforementioned six, having a total capacity of 100 billion tonne per annum once fully operational. NTPC now has five blocks of which four were reallocated to it in 2013 with aggregate reserves of 1.99 billion tonne -- Bhalumuda and Banai blocks in Chhattisgarh, Chandrabila in Odisha and the Kudanali-Luburi block in Odisha, while the fifth one is Pakri-Barwadih mine.
Choudhury said that the company was also looking at expanding inorganically and plans to acquire at least eight projects by this fiscal end. "We have appointed KPMG as M&A consultant which will help us identify the projects which will have all the necessary approvals, land clearances, coal linkage, PPAs signed, water supply and with appropriate valuations. We expect by this fiscal-end we will be able to add at least eight projects," he added.
The company may spend nearly Rs 6,000 crore to 10,000 crore for the acquisition, he added.
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