Northern Coalfields (NCL), a subsidiary of Coal India (CIL), and Neyveli Lignite Corporation are expected to sign an MoU by the year-end for setting up a 1000 Mw power plant in Madhya Pradesh."The draft MoU has been approved by the board of directors of NCL and Neyveli Lignite, and the power plant is likely to be set up somewhere near the Himsagar Dam in Madhya Pradesh. Coal for the power plant will be sourced from Neyveli Lignite's Nigahi coal block-B", N C Jha, director(technical) of CIL, told Business Standard.Both NCL and Neyveli Lignite will set up a JV company for setting up the power plant at an investment of over Rs 5,500 crore.The JV company would be responsible for land acquisition for the power project, Jha added.CIL had announced that it would foray into power generation with two of its subsidiaries - NCL and Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) - to set up power plants each with a capacity of 1,000 Mw via JVs with Neyveli Lignite.The public sector coal major has already taken up the issue with the coal ministry as it needs the ministry's approval for going ahead with the two power plants whose combined investment exceeds Rs 11,000 crore.MCL has also also initiated talks with Neyveli Lignite for the JV company but is yet to come up with a draft MoU so far.
