The decision was announced by Union Minister of State for Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal to a delegation of Bihar MPs at a meeting in New Delhi.

The delegation also debated topics such as increasing power supply to Bihar and issues related to government assistance under central sector schemes.

Bihar is likely to see an influx of coal production in the area, as the delegates also discussed NTPC's Barh project in Banka district and the renovation and modernisation of Barauni thermal power plant.

They also indicated that Barh’s unit 2 of stage 2 would be commercially operational by the end of the month contributing 330MW of power.

Bihar will also benefit from three other proposed central sector projects, Buxar, Pirpainty and Lakhisarai, as well as its share in two private sector plants planned by Essar and GMR groups.

The state's power demand of 2346MW is now met by central sector plants, the state sector and from power imported from other states.