Coal India (CIL) will soon appoint a consultant to help in forming a South African subsidiary, responsible for acquiring coal mines there.
The board, which has already formed a foreign acquisition subcommittee headed by director (technical) N Kumar to look into the nitty-gritty of foreign acquisitions, has received 12 responses against a global tender it floated. Sources close to the development said the subcommittee plans to put a consultant in place by the year end.
CIL has also floated a tender to rope in a consultant for its African subsidiary ? Coal India Africana ? and the tender is slated to close on September 6. The consultant will be responsible for capital restructuring of the African subsidiary, under which there are already two coal fields at Mozambique.
CIL has also set terms and conditions of handing out overseas posting to its officials, which will not be for a period of over a year for now.
Although CIL was trying to go slow on foreign acquisitions a few months back and was instead more keen on striking long-term coal supply agreements with foreign mine owners, both the Planning Commission and the PMO have recently asked it to be agressive on foreign acquisitions, since productivity from Indian mines was not expected to bridge the demand- supply gap even with CIL performing its best.
The demand by the power sector by the end of the 12 th plan period has been conservatively estimated at 842 million tonne, whereas CIL at its best performance can produce 615 mt by the end of the 12 th plan period.
The Planning Commission has given CIL a target to support 38,000 mw of new capacity addition during the 12 th plan period.