The Hindu

• Coal and Oil Company L L C wants to supply five lac tonnes of coal during this financial year
• Mangalore to be made the company's southern hub to supply imported coal
• The company wants to set up a 500 MW thermal power plant in the coastal region
• The supply will be through Coastal Energy Private Ltd. 

Mangalore, Aug 13: Coal and Oil Company L L C, a Dubai-based company, has plans to supply five lac tonnes of coal to industrial and power units in Karnataka through the New Mangalore Port during this financial year, according to Ahmed A R Buhari, President and Chief Executive Officer of the company.

Addressing presspersons aboard the company's merchant vessel, "Coastal Pride'', here on Saturday, he said coal would be supplied through its Indian subsidiary Coastal Energy Private Limited which had its offices in Chennai and Mumbai.

The company supplied 1.70 lac tonnes of coal in three shipments through the New Mangalore Port to industrial and power units in the State last month. The company wanted to make Mangalore its southern hub to supply imported coal.

Though the company started supplying coal through the Mangalore port in 1997, the quantity was small. It used to supply 250 tonnes of coal a year through this port. It wanted to increase coal supply because of the enhanced facilities at the port and the increasing demand for it, Buhari said.

He said the multi-purpose deep draught berth at the New Mangalore Port and railway connectivity through Hassan were the reasons for choosing Mangalore as the main route to supply coal to industrial units in the State. Earlier, coal to industrial units in north Karnataka was supplied from the ports in Goa and Chennai.

Buhari said the company wanted to set up a 500 MW thermal power plant in the coastal region of the country. The company was yet to identify a location for the purpose. It had plans to acquire a coalmine in Indonesia. This acquisition would help the company to have a captive source of coal to meet the demand by its customers. The company's focus would be on India where it had bulk of its businesses, he added.

He said the company hoped to become an integrated energy company - mining coal, supplying coal from its own mines and from other sources, transporting coal by its ships, providing inland warehousing and logistics facilities and setting up power projects. 
A Laxminarayana, Deputy General Manager (Commercial), East-Coast Region, Coastal Energy Private Limited, was present.