December 9, 2016 - India's largest electricity generator NTPC Limited plans to mine 2 million mt of coal in the 2017-18 fiscal year from its first coal mine Pakri Barwadih in the eastern state of Jharkhand, a company source said Friday.

The company reached seam-III in the Pakri Barwadih mine early this week after removing 700,000 cubic meters of overburden or waste material, and coal production will commence shortly, the source said, adding it can be supplied to any of the company's power plants.

This is a major step in building a reliable fuel supply chain for the company, which has stopped buying imported thermal coal for blending with domestic coal because the quality of the domestic material has improved.

Coal production from Pakri Barwadih will increase gradually to reach 4 million mt in the 2018-19 fiscal year, the NTPC source said.

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The state-run company plans to add around 4,000 MW of coal-based power generation capacity this year, then around 2,000 MW each year for several years, the source said.

NTPC currently has around 40,000 MW of coal-based installed capacity and is in the advanced stages of awarding contracts for the appointment of an operator for two other Indian coal mines.

The government has allocated 10 mines to NTPC with an estimated total coal reserve of 7.3 billion mt and mining capacity of 107 million mt/year.