India proposes setting up sovereign fund to buy coal assets abroad -min

NEW DELHI May 4 (Reuters) – India’s coal ministry has
proposed setting up a sovereign wealth fund to buy coal assets
abroad, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said on Friday.

Coal accounts for more than half of India’s power generation
and will be required for 85 percent of the 76,000 megawatts
additional capacity targeted in the next five years.

But domestic supply has fallen short of targets largely due
to regulatory hurdles, and poor infrastructure hinders the
transport of imported coal.

India’s cabinet is likely to consider a bill to create a
coal regulator next week, Jaiswal told reporters.

(Reporting by Sanjeev Choudhary and Krittivas Mukherjee;
editing by Jo Winterbottom)

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