Public sector power generator Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) is said to be holding discussion with Coal India (CIL) on mining old and abandoned coal mines.

The company plans to produce coal from old and abandoned mines in order to meet its coal requirement. The company has held its power capacity expansion project owing to lack of coal supply.

The company, which has 6,562 mw of power capacity, wants to add another 4,020 mw capacity. Presently, the firm needs 30 million tonne (mn t) of coal annually. But it procures only 12.45 mn t through fuel supply agreement with the CIL.

In order to find out the viability of mining in old and abandoned coal mines, the firm recently conducted a survey. It is learn that availability of coal has now become a major issue.

The power company needs almost 70,000 tonne of coal per day to produce around 5,000 mw of power, reports indicate. In 2013-14, the requirement of coal per day will rise following renovation of existing generating units.