NLC India Declared Lowest Bidder For Coal Mine Project In Odisha

NLC India Ltd. has been declared as the lowest bidder for the new Patrapara South coal mine project in Odisha's Angul district, according to an exchange filing on Friday.

The public sector enterprise signed the coal mine development and production agreement with the Ministry of Coal on Thursday. This is the third commercial coal mine for NLC, it said.

NLC was announced as the lowest bidder for the project after the commercial coal block e-auction on Nov. 21 by the ministry.

During an interview with NDTV Profit on Thursday, Chairperson Prasanna Motupalli said NLC was poised to develop 20 gigawatts of renewable and thermal power by 2030. The company plans to reach the production target of 100 million tonnes of coal and lignite during the same time period.

NLC's total capacity is 6.4 GW, with 1.4 GW coming from the renewable portfolio and the remaining 4.4 GW from thermal power, according to Motupalli. "We are targeting to increase this capacity of 6.4 GW to 20 GW by 2030. Out of that, 10 GW will be thermal, and 10 GW will be renewables."

In November, the company said that it would infuse Rs 3,720 crore in its subsidiary, NLC India Renewable, in one or more tranches for the various renewable projects. The Navratna firm will inject funds in its subsidiary through the way of cash and the infused funds will be utilised for the development of renewable power projects in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Shares of NLC closed 0.74% higher at Rs 266.30 apiece on the National Stock Exchange, compared to a 0.12% decline in the benchmark Nifty. The stock has risen 45.20% in the last 12 months and 5.07% on a year-to-date basis.

Two analysts tracking the company have a 'buy' rating on the stock, according to Bloomberg data. The average of 12-month analysts' price targets implies a potential upside of 30.5%.