Jindal Steel and Power Ltd has shelved a $10 billion coal-to-diesel project, its chairman told Reuters, becoming the first big casualty of a court decision to scrap coalfields allocated to private firms since 1993.
Zama, however, said the unions would keep resisting any move that could undermine the position of Coal India.
India will allow locally registered foreign firms to mine and sell coal when commercial mining is permitted as part of the opening up of the nationalised industry after four decades, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup told Reuters.
India's steel imports from China, the world's biggest producer of the alloy, doubled in April-September from a year ago though the country has enough capacity to meet its demand.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to open commercial coal mining to private players is a key step towards bringing order to the country's chaotic power industry and ending the chronic blackouts that impede its economic rise.
The company has also advised power firms to use trucks to carry coal from remote mines, like the Amrapali open cast pit in eastern Jharkhand state.
There was a sharp fall in power output on Thursday from a plant in Gujarat that left India more than 9,000 megawatts short of peak demand, according to two officials at the state grid operator.
In the long run, the decision could bring clearer rules to a sector that has failed to provide India with enough power because it has been so hamstrung by confusion and scandals over concessions allegedly handed to government cronies.
State behemoth Coal India, the world's largest coal miner, has failed to raise its output fast enough to meet demand, and millions of Indians still go without power.
India on Tuesday set a minimum export price for onions of $300 per tonne to discourage overseas shipments amid an inflation scare that threatens to stoke public anger over rising prices at local food markets.
The PM-elect wants to fix the coal sector; cut coal imports by boosting output.
Jindal Steel and Power and JSW Steel, are in competing talks to buy parts of insolvent Italian steelmaker Lucchini.
Environment ministry has given its go-ahead to POSCO's planned steel plant in the country, but has asked it to spend on "social commitments", a company spokesman said, raising the project's cost by $600 million to $12.6 billion.
On Tuesday, the partially convertible rupee, the worst performing currency among the major global economies, dropped as much as 3.1 percent to 68.12 per dollar.
But the company should take extra steps to prevent pollution.
Jindal's house was raided by the CBI on Tuesday.
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