Indian conglomerate Essar Group's power arm, Essar Power, on Wednesday said that it may open its Jharkhand coal mine for production next year.
Production from Tokisud North coal block in Jharkhand will start in the last quarter of the current financial year, a top company official said at a conference here.
"We are going ahead with the opening of the mine... we are in dialogue with the state government," he added.
Essar Power had earlier invested Rs.8,000 crore in a coal-based power plant in Madhya Pradesh's Mahan.
"With this coal mine acquisition, Essar will commence mining operations to power the Mahan plant within a few months," it had said.
The Tokisud North coal mine has extractable reserves of 52 million tonnes.