PTC India to acquire coal mines in Australia, Indonesia

Indian state-owned Power Trading Corp on Monday said that it would acquire coal properties overseas and has dentified mines in Australia and Indonesia for the purpose.

"We are looking for coal blocks abroad and have shortlisted mines in Australia and Indonesia where the fuel is available in abundance," senior official of Power Trading Corp T N Thakur was quoted by PTI.

"Ideally, if we can have (acquire) an asset that can give us 15 million tonnes of coal every year," he added.

However, he declined to give further details. "Whether the company would acquire the mines on its own or through its wholly-owned subsidiary PTC Energy Ltd, will be decided later," Thakur said.

The company plans to import the dry fuel from the properties it may acquire abroad and sell it in India.

PTC has already committed 1.5 million tonnes of coal annually to two power projects with a capacity of 250 MW, in the country for the next 25 years.

The company has received request for supplying coal to power projects with nearly 5,000 MW capacity.

"We have requests from 5,000 MW power projects but we have not committed anything as of now... we want to buy the properties overseas to meet that kind of demand," he said.(*)