PTI

Mumbai: Monnet Ispat and Energy today on 11 February it is putting up a 1,200-MW coal fuelled independent power plant in Orissa with an investment of Rs4,000 crore.

“We have been allocated a coal mine at Mandakini, in Orissa, along with two others including Tata Power,” Monnet Ispat vice-president, marketing and corporate affairs, Amitabh Mudgal said.

The mines have an estimated reserve of 300 million tonnes (MT) of coal. “Out of that, we will get 100 MT, which will be used to fuel the power plant,” Mudgal said.

In the first phase, which will be commissioned by FY10, the power plant will have 1,000 MW of capacity.

After commissioning, it will take another 3-6 months to jack up capacity to 1,200MW.

Meanwhile the company, which is currently producing 0.5 MT of steel at at Raipur and Raigadh in Chhattisgarh, is also increasing capacity to 1 million tonnes by March.

The company plans to further increase its steel-making capacity to 3MT a year by FY12, Mudgal said.