The cost of electricity for the initial 10 years will be 8.5 cents per unit and when the loan period ends, the cost will come down to 6 cents per unit

ICBC has issued a letter of interest for providing $1 billion in the form of a 10-year loan to help extract coal from block-I of the coalfield.

This covers 75% of the capital cost of phase one of the project while 25% will be equity, which will be raised by a consortium.

It is expected to start coal extraction soon after achieving the financial close. Initially, 6.5 million tons of coal will be produced per annum from the block, which has estimated reserves of 2.5 billion tons. This coal production will be enough to run four power plants of 350 megawatts each.

Coal extraction could be scaled up to 20 million tons per annum for its sale to other power plants or export to foreign markets.