National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), India’s biggest electricity producer is evaluating an offer to buy a South African coal mine so that it can meet the increasing power demands by having a sufficient supply of coal for power generation.

Mr. R. S. Sharma, Chairman of NTPC has reported that the deal is in its initial stage and evaluation of the approached proposal is going on.

He refused to provide any further details on the matter.

Mr. Sharma has said that the state owned PSU gets most of its coal from Coal India Ltd. and the company has planned to buy coal mines in India as well as overseas to meet the heavy demands.

He added that NTPC will soon start land acquisition in eastern India for coal mines and will buy at least one coal mine overseas. For that purpose, NTPC has hired Macquarie Group Ltd. to assess a proposed coal mine purchase in Indonesia.

NTPC is willing to purchase a South African company for $1 billion, which has an exploration license for 1 billion metric tons of coal reserves.

The shares of NTPC were up by 1.4 per cent to Rs. 208.05 at the BSE.