The announcement was made during trading hours on Thursday, 9 October 2014. Shares of GVK Power & Infrastructure rose 2.88% to Rs 10 on 9 October 2014. The stock has risen 7.51% in two sessions from Rs 9.72 on Wednesday, 8 October 2014.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 274.57 points, or 1.03%, to 26,362.71.

On BSE, so far 4.69 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 8.24 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 10.47 and a low of Rs 9.90 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 20.85 on 26 May 2014. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 6.70 on 15 October 2013.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 9 October 2014, falling 22.60% compared with 2.30% fall in the Sensex. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, sliding 41.52% as against Sensex's 4.69% rise.

The small-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 157.92 crore. Face value per share is Re 1.

After over 6 years of comprehensive environmental assessments and detailed planning, GVK Hancock has been granted an environmental authority (clearance) for its Alpha Coal Project in the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland, GVK Power & Infrastructure said in a statement.

This is a significant development that takes GVK another step closer towards bringing online a new low cost, low ash, low sulphur, high quality thermal coal basin, offering the ability to lower emissions from global coal fired power generation. The volume and magnitude of GVK's Alpha coal project's large, shallow and very flat coal seams would enable large scale mining techniques, thus ensuring that the proposed mine remains cost competitive even in current tough market conditions, the company said.

The GVK Hancock joint venture still needs to finalise a plan with coal rail operator Aurizon Holdings, overcome legal challenges to the project, and sign coal sales agreements before lining up financing for the huge project.

With the Environmental Authority for Alpha Coal Project in place, GVK's key focus is to continue advancing the project to a point where construction can commence, GVK said.

The proposed Alpha mine has a JORC compliant resource of 1.8 billion tonnes, with 1.2 billion tonnes of reserves and will be a full open cut mine producing around 32 million tonnes per annum for 30 years.

The Alpha mine is 79% owned by GVK and 21% owned by Hancock Prospecting.

GVK Power & Infrastructure reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 281.33 crore in Q1 June 2014, higher than net loss of Rs 30.59 crore in Q1 June 2013. Net sales rose 1.9% to Rs 712.67 crore in Q1 June 2014 over Q1 June 2013.

GVK Power & Infrastructure is a leading Indian conglomerate with presence across energy, resources, airports, transportation, hospitality and life sciences sectors.