This is Coal India's (CIL) first of its kind MoU for a solar power project with any state government, the company stated.

The PSU company said that it aimed at an estimated cost of approximately Rs 8,000 crore, CIL's solar power project is slated to come up in RVUNL's 2,000 MW solar power park at Bikaner, in a phased manner, in Rajasthan.

The solar park is approved under Ministry of New and Renewable Energy's scheme of Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Power Parks, the company said.

While the Rajasthan government would ensure handing over the possession of encumbrance and encroachment free land to CIL, the company would set up the solar project on the allocated land. The aim is to kick start the solar project in 24 months, the company stated in the press release.

Coal India said that this is its biggest ever solar power project planned till date almost 40% of its ambitious plan of establishing 3,000 MW capacity solar projects by FY 2023-24 under its net zero energy initiative. The final implementation and investment plans would be worked out as the project progresses in phased manner. Grid connectivity would be facilitated by RVUNL, it added.

In a separate exhchange filing, the coal mining company clarified that it has executed three separate non-binding agreements in form of MoU with Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) and GAIL (India) on 12 October 2022. It is clarified that these agreements are only an intention to carry out collaborative efforts for enabling CIL to study the feasibility of using coal for Surface Coal Gasification (SCG) and for production of value added chemicals.

Only after due diligence and finalizing all the terms and conditions, the parties may consider to enter into definitive agreement after obtaining the approval of respective boards and complying to GOI guidelines, if any.

"Once the parties enter into a definitive agreement, the stock exchange would be duly notified. As such, at this stage there is no material impact of the referred news article on the company," CIL said in a clarification.

Coal India is a coal mining company engaged in the production and sale of coal. As of 30 June 2022, the Government of India held 66.13% stake in the company.

The state-run coal major's consolidated net profit climbed 178.7% to Rs 8,832.86 crore on 39.5% jump in revenue from operations to Rs 32,497.98 crore in Q1 FY23 over Q1 FY22.

Shares of Coal India were up 0.60% to Rs 236.05 on the BSE.