Tata Steel, SAIL to form JV for coal mining.

Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India (SAIL) are all set to form a joint venture for coal blocks. They are likely to sign an agreement to form a joint venture company for mining four coking coal blocks, most likely in Jharkhand which has reserves of about 500 million tonne for meeting their production needs. Both companies would seek to put in place a formal JV company and then begin scouting for more coal blocks. The board would have representatives from both the companies. The new entity is likely to have an initial capital of Rs 2 crore to be shared equally by the partners. While SAIL is planning to increase output to 26 million tonne at a cost of more than Rs 50,000 crore, Tata is executing major brownfield and greenfield expansion projects.