India's largest electricity producer state-run NTPC Limited has started production from its Pakri-Barwadih coal mine in Jharkhand state in eastern India as the first installment was dispatched from the mine, the company said in a statement Friday.
The first rake of coal has been flagged off Thursday from the mine at Hazaribagh, NTPC said.
Initially, NTPC's Barh power station in eastern state of Bihar will be supplied one coal rake daily from this mine. One rake carries around 4,000 mt of coal.
The Pakri-Barwadih mine is expected to produce around 150,000 mt of coal by March 2017 and it will have an ultimate capacity of 18 million mt/year.
Next year, around 2 million-3 million mt of coal is likely to be produced.
As a basket source, coal will be supplied to different power stations under NTPC from this mine, the company said.
At present, NTPC has total installed capacity of 48,000 MW and it contributes nearly 24% of the country's total power generation. Of the 48,000 MW installed capacity, around 36,000 MW constitutes coal-based power.
The company has stopped using imported coal as domestic coal supply has improved and it is aiming to get more coal from its own captive mines.
The government has allocated 10 mines to NTPC with total estimated reserves of 7.3 billion mt, and mining capacity is to eventually reach 107 million mt/year.
Early this month, the NTPC board gave approval to appoint a mine developer-cum-operator for the Dulanga coal mine in Odisha in eastern India that will have a capacity of 7 million mt/year.
The company has upcoming coal-based thermal power capacity of around 4,000 MW at various locations and it is expecting to add around 2,000 MW of capacity every year.
