Calcutta, April 7 :     Coal India Ltd (CIL) has decided, for the first time, to form a joint venture to develop two projects in Central Coalfield at an estimated investment of Rs 3000 crore. The two projects are at Amrapali and Magadh, which are lying in the North Karanpura coalfield area under the CCL. The public sector coal behemoth has already appointed ICICI as its consultant for the projects. Confirming the decision, chairman P. K. Sengupta said Coal India would have a 51 per cent in the project while the joint venture partner would hold the rest. Sengupta hinted that the company may also opt for a minority stake in the joint venture if the government approves. The coal company has also received the government's approval for the projects. Sengupta said the ICICI would prepare a detailed financial structure of the proposed company and help the CIL to find a joint venture partner. Once we receive the ICICI report, we will go in for global tendering to select a partner, Sengupta added. The announcement comes a day after the government announced its decision to re-open coal mining to the private sector after a gap of almost 27 years. This will be possible by amending the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act 1973 to enable full-scale mining and exploration of coal and lignite by Indian companies. The coal ministry is also planning to introduce a separate bill that will allow state-owned coal companies to rope in private partners to form joint ventures to exploit mines and coal-bearing blocks that they own. The CIL subsidiary, Coal Mine Planning and Development Institute (CMPDIL), has been assigned to prepare a report on the two coal blocks, which have power grade coal deposits. The projects would cater to the two proposed power plants of National Thermal Power Corporation in Bihar, one at Brar and the other at North Karanpura. Sengupta said the two power plants will have capacities of 1000 MW each. The coal linkage agreement with the NTPC has also been signed. Sengupta said the two mines would take about five years time to be developed. The production capacities of the two mines would be around 20 million tonnes per annum, he added. Sengupta said the decision to go in for a joint venture had been taken as CCL was not in strong financial health. Another senior CIL official said it is very difficult for the CCL to mop up fund from its own resources for the two projects as it has been making heavy losses over the past few years. Sengupta, however, said the joint venture would be treated as a test case. If the proposed venture succeeds, a similar route may be adopted in future for other projects as well. 'With the coal sector opening up, we can take less than 51 per cent stake subject to the government's approval and the offers we receive from the bidders,' he said. During the current year, CIL has set an investment target of Rs 2790.32 crore against last year's level of Rs 2676.19 crore. The company will generate Rs 890.35 crore from internal resources while the rest will come from the World Bank and from suppliers' credit. The company has 51 ongoing projects, of which the Eastern Coalfield has eight, Bharat Coking Coal Ltd four, CCL 10, Northern Coalfield two, Western Coalfield eight, South Eastern Coalfield 16 and the Mahanadi Coalfield three. The company is also awaiting approvals from the government for one under ground mine and 14 opencast mines. These 15 mines will add fresh capacity of 45 million tonnes per annum to the CIL. The company has set a production target of 267 mtpa against last year's 260.69 mtpa and an offtake target of 268.50 mtpa against 263.03 mtpa.