Mr RS Sharma chairman of NTPC said that NTPC in 2010/11 will look at signing long term contracts with coal producers to import the fuel.

Mr Sharma said that the contracts could run for up to 3 years and would give the utility reliability, security and (optimal) prices."

He said that NTPC's coal imports in the 2010/11 fiscal year would exceed the current fiscal's target of 12.5 million tonnes as the firm plans to raise generating capacity by a tenth.

(Sourced from Reuters)