According to Essar, it has received the final 'Pinjam Pakai' forest approval, enabling it to accelerate development at Aries to provide fuel for its Salaya-I power plant.
"Essar Energy has access to over 500 million tonnes of coal resources across seven coal blocks in India and overseas. This coal is sufficient to provide fuel to 5,250 MW of Essar Energy's power generation capacity," company CEO Naresh Nayyar said.
"This is a major step forward in our strategy of providing full fuel security for all of our power generation assets, thereby eliminating price and delivery risks," he added.
The Aries coal mine, which Essar acquired in April, 2010 for USD 118 million, is 5,000 hectares in area and is located in the West Kutai region of East Kalimantan.
Essar has already started constructing the supporting road and port infrastructure; it is expected that first coal will be available within nine to 12 months.
