By Sapna Dogra and Jonathan Dart

June 14, 2017 - India's largest electricity generator, state-run NTPC, is all set to extract coal from its second captive coal mine in the current fiscal year (April-March), a company source said Wednesday.

The Dulanga coal mine in Orissa, eastern India is expected to start production in six to eight months, the official said, adding that the mine developer contract was awarded early this year.

Dulanga coal mine has a production capacity of 7 million mt a year.

The company also expects coal production of about 3 million mt by March 2018 from its Pakri-Barwadih coal mine in the eastern state of Jharkhand, which started production in December 2016, NTPC said in a statement Wednesday.

NTPC, so far, has produced more than 460,000 mt of coal from Pakri-Barwadih mine and successfully dispatched 58 coal rakes (202,480 mt of coal) to its 1.32-GW Barh thermal power station in Bihar, eastern India, the statement said.

The government has allocated 10 mines to NTPC with total estimated reserves of 7.3 billion mt with ultimate mining capacity of 107 million mt/year.

NTPC has a total installed capacity of 51 GW, of which around 44 GW is coal-fired. From being the largest coal importer in the country until a few years ago, NTPC now has completely stopped importing coal as domestic coal supplies have risen and it is aiming to extract more coal from its own mines.