Arun Kumar Jagatramka in Calcutta on Monday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, May 23: Gujarat NRE Coking Coal Limited, the Australian coking coal manufacturing arm of city-based Gujarat NRE Coke Limited, is expecting a 61.2 per cent rise in capacity to 2.5 million tonnes by the end of this fiscal.

Mining capacity stood at 1.55 million tonnes last financial year. “During the fiscal ending March 2012, we are expecting the capacity to be 2.5 million tonnes. This should be achievable as we are expecting to complete the upgradation of our longwall mining in NRE No. 1 Colliery by December. This will result in a capacity addition of 0.6 million tonnes,” said Arun Kumar Jagatramka, chairman and managing director of Gujarat NRE Coke.

Gujarat NRE Coking Coal has two mines in Australia — NRE No.1 Colliery and NRE Wongawilli Colliery. Both these mines are located at Wollongong in New South Wales.

The firm sees its capacity to rise to 6 million tonnes by 2014-15. The company recently raised Rs 320 crore through institutional placements to fund expansion in the Australian mines.

“Of the 2.5 million tonnes, we (Gujarat NRE Coke) require, about 1.6-1.7 million tonnes and the rest will be sold to third party buyers,” Jagatramka said.

Of the 1.55 million tonnes mined last year, about 0.4 million tonnes were sold to Chinese buyers. “The majority of the demand comes from Asian and European buyers.”

Jagatramka said significant progress had been made on the oil and gas exploration project in Australia.

“We have got all the clearance for setting up the oil and gas project in Australia. We are in the process of acquiring data, which will be completed within a few months. Then, we will take a decision on when to start production,” he said.

Gujarat NRE Coke has deferred the initial public offering of Gujarat NRE Mineral Resource Ltd, which holds a controlling stake in Gujarat NRE Coking Coal Ltd.