According to the Press Trust of India, Tata requires more than 10 million tonnes per annum of imported coal for the facility.
Mundra is the country’s first UMPP and has so far been powered by coal imported from Indonesia.
The project’s first 800MW unit kicked off operations in March, with a second one anticipated in August.
Power generated from Mundra will be supplied to five states – Gujarat (1805MW), Maharashtra (760MW), Punjab (475MW), Haryana (380MW) and Rajasthan (380MW).
The cost of Mundra is estimated to be 170 billion rupees ($US3.1 billion) with 75% of the funding through debt.
India’s own coal supply is known to be erratic.
By April this year, 30 out of 95 thermal power plants had registered extremely low levels of coal.
The shortage of domestic coal is due to stagnant production and has prompted power producers to import fuel or look at acquiring overseas assets.
The Press Trust of India today reported that 93% of work is complete at Mundra and Tata has installed 4338MW of thermal capacity.
In May, Tata announced its intention to triple its coal imports to 15 million tonnes.
The power company is India’s oldest and largest private sector electric utility company with an installed generation capacity of more than 5000MW.
