Essar Power to start mining from Tokisud block in Jharkhand

Essar Power will commence mining at its Jharkhand coal block in next few months to help the company restart its Mahaan power plant, lying idle due to lack of fuel since last 18 months.

"Essar Power MP, an arm of Essar Power, on Tuesday announced signing the Coal Mine Development and Production Agreement with the central government for the Tokisud North coal block in Jharkhand," Essar Power said in a statement.

Essar Power MP owns and operates the 1,200 MW coal based power plant in Mahan, Madhya Pradesh, which has been set up with an investment of Rs 8,000 crore.

"With this coal mine acquisition, the company will commence mining operations to power the Mahan plant within a few months," it said.

With Tokisud North coal mine coming on stream, 1,200 MW of power from the plant would soon be available to the country. The company is in the process of signing long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), the statement said.

The mine, which has all necessary clearances to begin operations, has extractable coal reserves of 52 million tonnes (MT), it added. Besides, the block development time will get reduced as the nearest railway line, a vital infrastructure, is merely 6 kms away.