Coal India signs MoU with Damodar Valley Corporation for ₹16,500 crore project; check details

A non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the two government-owned energy entities on Monday in Kolkata.

“Widening further its business diversification portfolio into thermal power generation, Coal India Limited (CIL), the country’s frontline coal producer, formally joined hands with Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) to set up a coal-fired 2×800 MW ultra-supercritical power plant in Jharkhand,” Coal India said in a statement to the stock exchanges.

DVC is the power generator that operates in the states of West Bengal and Jharkhand.

This will be a brownfield project—an expansion of the existing Chandrapura Thermal Power Station (CTPS) of 2 X 250 MW capacity, the PSU further explained.

The total investment of the project will be approximately around ₹16,500 crore. The joint venture company would be on a 50% equity-sharing basis.

The MoU also includes provisions to explore various opportunities for jointly developing thermal power projects and renewable energy projects, with or without storage, to meet the growing power demand in the DVC valley region.

Coal for the proposed power plants would be sourced from coalfields in the proximity of CIL’s subsidiary companies Bharat Coking Coal Limited and Central Coalfields Limited.

The MoU was signed in the presence of P. M. Prasad, Chairman, CIL, and S. Suresh Kumar (IAS), Chairman, DVC. The pact was inked by Debasish Nanda, Director (Business Development) CIL, and Swapnendu Kumar Panda, Member (Technical) DVC, on behalf of the respective companies.

The development came post-market hours. Coal India shares on Monday settled at ₹400.70 apiece, edging up by 0.46% on the National Stock Exchange.

The state-owned firm this month had hiked coal prices by ₹10 per tonne for both coking and non-coking coal.

Further, CIL produced 781.1 million tonnes (MT) of coal in 2024-25, nearly 7% less than the company's target for the financial year.