According to Mrinal Banerjee, power minister of West Bengal, said that the West Bengal's state Power Development Corporation may go for acquiring coal assets abroad like many other corporates.
The government may ask DVC to participate in such ventures as a junior partner, he added.
Jairam Ramesh, Union minister for power who was also present at the meeting, said it was an interesting proposal prime facie.
"DVC will be looking into the feasibility of such a proposal, but already DVC's hands are full with the set power target projects," he said.
Banerjee said the West Bengal government was ready to partner DVC as well if it acquired coal mines abroad.
"DVC must take initiative to acquire coal mines abroad to address the problem coal shortage like the other CPSUs. West Bengal Power Development Corporation is ready to join as a junior partner if such initiative is taken," Banerjee said.
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Ramesh said, "I am happy such a proposal came from the state government rather than the other way round. I would ask DVC to examine the feasibility of the such project as many PSUs have acquired mines abroad and there are possibilities in Australia, Indonesia and Africa."
India faced a huge coal shortage, and by 2012, may face a shortage of around 40-45 million ton of coal, warned Ramesh.
The 1040 power plant of DVC at Mejia currently had coal stock of only one day instead of the ideal stock level of 15 days despite the coal minister's assurance of abundant availability of coal in the state.
Ramesh said he felt the need for standardisation of power plants and a policy to regulate them.
The power ministry asked the government of West Bengal to set up two new 500MW plants each under Durgapur Projects and at Bakreswar in addition to the 600MW already existing there with the help of BHEL.
This apart, 26 blocks in the Raniganj area were identified for power generation using coal bed methane as fuel.
The Raniganj blocks had a total capacity of 60000 cubic metres of gas per day, enough to produce around 3000MW.
Tata Power and Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL), may join hands with DVC as corporate partners to set up India's first research and development (R&D) centre in Kolkata.
Speaking at the foundation laying ceremony of the centre, Asim Burman, chairman of DVC, pointed out that the whole project may cost close to Rs 120 crore over the next 4 to 5 years.
The R&D centre spread over four acres would focus on specialised research on coal and power sectors, he added.
This would be the first R&D project of DVC with IIT Kharagpur and was expected to solve to coal and power problems of DVC and of India as a whole.
As of date, DVC, as the second largest power utility in India, had total capacity of around 2400 MW.
DVC aimed to take it up to 11000 MW by the end of 2012 under the 11th Five Year Plan and 17000 MW by 2017 to meet demand for power.