State-owned miner Coal India and power generator Damodar Valley Corporation Friday agreed to set up a joint venture for undertaking brownfield expansion of the latter’s thermal power stations in Jharkhand’s Chandrapura. The coal-fired station comprises of two ultra-supercritical units of 800 MW each – aggregating to 1,600 MW. Coal India’s subsidiary, Central Coalfields Limited, would be supplying the raw material to the power station.

The project is estimated to cost about ₹21,000 crore with the two entities holding 50% equity each. Costs encompass those for development, construction and commissioning of the two units.

The two entities aspire to commence commercial operations by FY 2031-32.

In a statement, a senior executive at Coal India said, “The synergy between both the organisations is to strengthen the country’s baseload generation capacity, leveraging existing infrastructure at the Chandrapura site to ensure efficient resource utilisation and faster implementation.”

Additionally, the state-owned pointing to the project coming up in the coalfield area, the variable cost of power to be generated is “expected to be competitive”.

The latest joint venture follows up from a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the two state-owned entities in April this year. It sought to “meet the growing power demand” in the valley region spreading across West Bengal and Jharkhand. As for the latest joint venture, other than addressing power demands, it would also look to explore possibilities of similar ventures for setting up of thermal power and renewable energy projects, with and/or without storage, in other parts of India as well.